Down Under Thunder

MINSTER - Sam Cooley admitted that his first trip to Minster last year wasn't a successful one.

The Australian certainly made up for it in his second trip, as he came out of qualifying as the top seed, then bowled well in the stepladder final to win the PBA Central Region Kremer Roofing Classic at Community Lanes on Thursday afternoon.

Cooley picked up his second check of the season, collecting $4,000 for the victory.

"It's been good. It's tough for spectators to come out during the working week. I got lucky being in the second group (held later in the afternoon on Wednesday), so we had more spectators involved," said Cooley. "It was great to see."

Cooley was in the top 10 after bowling in the qualifier session on Wednesday. After the first advancer round, when the field is cut to 12, Cooley was 11th, just 16 pins ahead of the 13th-place bowler. But in the final four games of the second advancer round, Cooley stormed to the top of the standings to edge Graham Fach by one pin to take the top seed for the five-player stepladder round, meaning he would get a rest while the other four bowlers duked it out to decide a challenger.

Fifth-seeded Zac Tackett opened with a 235-210 win over fourth-seeded Patrick Dombrowski in the opening match, moving Tackett to the next round against third-seeded Shawn Maldonado. It came down to the wire, but Tackett was able to squeak by 235-232 to advance to the semifinal against second-seed Fach.

It was another close match, but Fach was able to dispatch Tackett 224-203 to reach the final.

Fach went first in the final round, and after dropping nine pins on his first throw, he was unable to collect the spare for an open frame. Cooley took advantage quickly, bowling four straight strikes in his first four frames. Fach rebounded with three strikes over his next three frames.

Both bowlers rolled spares (Fach a 9-spare, Cooley a 7-spare) in the fifth frames, but Cooley saw the final two pins of his sixth frame slowly drop for a spike. Fach rolled an eight on the first ball of his sixth frame, but could not collect the final pins for his second open of the match. After both rolled strikes in the seventh, Foch got a 9-spare in the eighth while Cooley was unable to convert a 4-7-10 split and settled for a 7-2.

Each bowler had a strike in the ninth frame, but Cooley went 9-spare and strike in the 10th to finish with a 222 and clinch the match. Fach settled for a strike on his first ball of the 10th, then 8-spared to get a 202.

"Tried to keep it as smooth and easy as possible," said Cooley. "Caught a few breaks in the beginning and tried to capitalize when I could. Graham had good ball movement, but didn't have the score to show it.

"Across the day, everything seemed to click. The worst part was sitting around and waiting (for the first three matches of the stepladder round to finish). You (wait), then have to get up to stretch and warm up. I'm looking forward to coming back this year."

Fach earned $2,200 for second place. Tackett's third-place showing was good for $1,500 with Maldonado and Dombrowski collecting $1,200 and $1,000, respectively, for fourth and fifth.

Community Lanes employee Matt Kuba finished 11th overall to earn $820. Versailles graduate Michael Davidson, whose father Doug owns Community Lanes, finished 17th to earn $620. Wapakoneta's Brandon Kennard was the only other local bowler to reach the cashers round, taking home $580 for 20th.

Cooley and a number of the other bowlers who competed in Minster now make the short trek to Pla-Mor Lanes in Coldwater for the PBA Bowlerstore.com Open that begins tonight with pro-am play followed by qualifying on Saturday and finals on Sunday.

"The atmosphere (in Minster) is a lot like Coldwater. Coldwater's going to be tougher, but we expect that every year," said Cooley. "They build their reputation around scores being low and it being hard. That's why we come back."