Loschetter charges from behind for win

COLDWATER - Chris Loschetter said Mike Wolfe was the one everyone was chasing after qualifying action at the 2009 Lefeld Implement Classic, and that the rest of the field was just working for the second seed.

Turned out to be a prophetic statement and the perfect thing for Loschetter.

The Avon, Ohio native, who was over 200 pins behind Wolfe after match play going into the finals for Sunday's final, dominated the championship match, beating Wolfe 246-184 to collect the $4,000 winner's check of the second-annual event at Pla-Mor Lanes in Coldwater.

Wolfe dominated the qualifying in the placement rounds, going 10-2 in match play and knocking down 4,848 pins over 20 games to take the top spot and earning the automatic bid in the championship match.

"Mike made it clear at the beginning of the day that he was going to lead," said Loschetter, who was 232 pins back in second place. "I was kind of battling for second."

Loschetter's second-place spot in the qualifier meant he would not have to bowl until the third semifinal match in the stepladder bracket, which pits the fifth seed against the fourth seed with the winner facing the third seed.

Brian LeClair, seeded fourth after match play, won the first two stepladder matches, beating Jack Jurek 194-183 and Robert Smith 232-202 to face Loschetter, who dominated to beat LeClair 233-193 to advance to face Wolfe.

"Any advantage is huge," said Loschetter of his spot in the stepladder. "Fifth seed, it's hard to win it (all). Number-one seed is where you always want to be, but number two is good."

Loschetter jumped out to a big start with a strike in the opening frame. Wolfe, after being dominant earlier, hit a bump right off the bat, throwing a gutter ball on the first ball and taking an open-7 to start things off.

Loschetter was dominant, throwing nine strikes with a streak of four midway through the game and wrapping up with three strikes in the 10th frame. Wolfe threw just four strikes and five spares before throwing open to wrap up the game.

Loschetter, who played in the tournament last year, was happy to see the large crowd all weekend.

"It's exciting," said Loschetter, who earned his sixth PBA regional title with the win. "Linus, Rick (Pla-Mor owners Linus and Rick Hartings) and Brian Kretzer (PBA pro and co-host of the tournament) did a lot to get sponsors to the event and get involved in the event with the Coldwater Cup. It's always more exciting when there's more people watching. Three weeks ago I had a regional tournament that had about 20 people watching."

One local bowler did well enough to earn some money. Coldwater's Kyle Bruns, who knows the lanes well from his days on the high school bowling team, finished 28th overall on the weekend and earning $475 for his weekend. Celina's Gary Cisco finished just out of the money in 37th while Versailles' Doug Davidson finished 53rd. Former Coldwater native Jim Hennessey took 59th with Celina's Jeff Schott finishing in the top 70 in 68th place.  

The Coldwater Cup, which pairs the top sponsors for the weekend with a bowler via draw, was won by Imperial Tent Company.

A number of bowlers from the weekend will stay in the area for a little bit longer to take part in today's Linus Open golf outing to raise funds for the West Ohio High School Bowling Conference at The Fox's Den in Celina. On Tuesday, there will be a youth clinic at Pla-Mor from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.