The Berkshire Badgers boys’ bowling team dream of winning the Chagrin Valley Conference tournament will have to wait at least one more year. The Badgers took fourth place at the CVC tournament by knocking down 3467 pins last Sunday at the Jefferson Bowling Lanes in Ashtabula County.
“They battled pretty tough,” said Coach Kevin Johnson. “They missed a lot of spares and that took them right out of it. I think they were out of third place by 30 pins and out of first place by a couple of 100 pins. When two of your five bowlers struggle, you can’t really win.”
Senior Levi Rohl paced Berkshire by knocking down 560 pins, followed by senior Noah Valentino who bowled a 538, sophomore Ethan Miller scored a 513, senior Mario Romagni bowled a 454 and senior Ryan Kessinger knocked down 445 pins.
According to the four-year coach, the Badger boys struggled from the onset and missed numerous spares in the first three games. Not converting spares is always a big deal in any tournament but when it is a small tournament such as the CVC, those missed spares loom large.
The missed spares came back to haunt Berkshire at the end of the first three games, as they sat in fourth place, trailing Brooklyn by 53 pins, which amounted to two or three missed spares.
In addition to missing spares, the Badgers’ top two scorers Kessinger and Romagni each struggled, plagued by poor first games as Kessinger only knocked down 118 pins and Romagni bowled a 124.
“They missed spares they should have made,” Johnson said. “It was just a mental lapse on their part. Mario and Ryan definitely had bad mental days; Ethan surprised me. He performed better than I thought he would, and Levi performed pretty well but it was just mentally a bad tournament for them.”
The Badgers failed to make up ground in the six game Baker series and stayed in fourth place at the end of the tournament.
Johnson acknowledged that the Badgers could never find their footing in the tournament.
“There were only a few teams in this tournament, and they were good teams and we just made bad shots and bad mental errors,” he noted. “You can’t recover from that in such a small tournament with good teams. Everyone there was a pretty good team.”
Although consistency plagued Berkshire throughout the tournament, Rohl maintained a steady approach by leading the team with a 560.
“Levi missed a few spares, but he came up big,” Johnson said. “He threw a couple of doubles when he needed, he threw four in a row when he needed it. He bowled his game and Levi is Levi, every match you get the same Levi. He is constant.”
Despite the poor performance at the CVC tournament, Johnson said that Badgers still have plenty to play for in the final week. While winning the CVC tournament was a big goal, it was not the only milestone they have been seeking as the team has operated with the mindset that achieving a state berth as a team is well within the realm of possibilities.
“They are not even talking about anything but the state tournament,” Johnson said. “They do not want to come out as individuals but want to come out as a team and go to state. I told them we will work on it to get what we need but honestly if they show up like they did yesterday they will not make it out.”
After a disappointing performance in the CVC tournament, Johnson said he is interested in seeing how mentally tough his squad is as they prepare for postseason play.
“I am very interested to see how they do,” he said. “I have four seniors, they know they have to bounce back or they will go home early. They figure nothing else matters but the state tournament. I wanted to see them do well in the CVC. It was disappointing and I thought we would win it, but we have our NEOHSBL league tournament and sectionals coming up, so they have two big tournaments.”
Following a regular season road finale against CVC rival Jefferson on Wednesday, the Badgers will compete in the Northeast Ohio High School Bowling League tournament at the Wickliffe Lanes in Lake County on Friday at 10 a.m. They will then compete in the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division II sectional tournament at the Freeway Lanes in Warren on Sunday at 9 a.m.
