(By Coach Leonard Risinger) The Lady Pirates traveled to Boulevard Lanes in Columbus to take part in the Boone Central Tournament on Dec.13. The Pirates also traveled to Columbus but bowled at Westbrook Lanes. This meant I took the girls and Assistant Coach Dale Krause took the boys. Neither bowling alley was big enough to host both the boys’ and girls’ tournament at the same time.
There were nine teams in the tournament for both sides, so there were four regular games to get total pin count that would set teams in the bracket, then we did baker's games best of five through the bracket to find out who the winner is.
With nine teams in the tournament, there was a team call the Ghost to compete with the one team that would not be bowling against anyone. You still need to bowl a good game to beat the Ghost or you can actually lose to them. The way you find the Ghost score is add all the teams that are actually bowling that round and divide by the total teams competing there.
So, for the Lady Pirates we added up all eight teams in the first round and divide by eight, and the boys were nine teams and divided by nine.
The reason for a different number is Hartington-Newcastle girls had to forfeit because they still could not field a team for the tournament.
The Lady Pirates did draw the ghost team in the first round and they scored a 536 together. Leading the ladies with high scores were Meagan Wagner with a 127 and Nyome Harding with a 112. The average score across the team bowling was a 659 in the first round, so the Lady Pirates lost the first match. Each of these regular games count to the wild card ranking that will be used to put teams in districts at the end of January/beginning of February.
In the second game, the Lady Pirates faced off with Grand Island Northwest Lady Vikings. The Lady Vikings took control of the second game, winning 691-552 and taking the points 5.5-2.5. Winning their point (or half) were Meagan Wagner, Lucea Miller, and Nyome Harding. High scores were thrown by Lucea with a 150 and Nyome with a 135.
The third match was with Boone Central Lady Cardinals and this was a close match for the Lady Pirates. Lady Cardinals won thanks to a little late game heroics by their fourth bowler, throwing 60 pin count in the final two frames, winning 561-541 and taking 6 of the eight points. Winning their point for the Lady Pirates were Nyome Harding and Meagan Wagner. Nyome and Meagan also led with high scores of 125 and 124, respectively.
The fourth game was against York Duchess. The Duchess won the match with a final score of 630-552 and tak ing 6 of the 8 points. The Lady Pirates winning their point were Nyome Harding and Lucea Miller. They both led the team with high scores of 133 and 130, respectively.
There was a short break in the action to double check scores and get everything added up to see where the Lady Pirates landed on the 8-team bracket.
Normally, there would be two teams removed at this point, but with a Ghost and Hartington-Newcastle forfeiting, the Lady Pirates automatically got in.
This bracket is a best of five bakers games format, single elimination, so there is no chance to come back after a loss.
After the break, this is where the teams fell in order from first through eighth: Wayne Lady Blue Devils, Norfolk Lady Panthers, Howells Dodge Lady Jaguars, Grand Island Northwest Lady Vikings, Humphrey Lindsay Lady Bulldogs, York Duchess, Plainview-Osmond Pirates, and Boone Central Lady Cardinals. Lady Pirates took on the Norfolk Lady Pan- thers in the first round of the bracket.
The Lady Panthers are a good team and last year’s Class A champion, so the Lady Pirates had their work cut out for them. The Lady Panthers were aggressive in the first two matches, winning 159-104 and 188-122. This meant the Lady Pirates must reverse sweep to have a chance to keep going in the tournament.
Both teams were tied in the seventh frame with a 96, but Lady Pirates could not keep up with the fire power of the Lady Panthers, losing 121-152.
The Lady Pirates were knocked out of the tournament. I was happy with the draw against the Lady Panthers because with them being an A class, we get bonus 2 points for competing against them in the wildcard standings. The Lady Pirates added 5 more losses on the season. So, for now the Lady Pirates are 1-7 on the season.
The Pirates saw the same opponents and had to score enough pins to beat out one team in order to get to the bracket. One of the teams would be done after the four regular games.
The Pirates also had the Ghost so they threw a 570 which is not good enough for the win, losing 809-570. High scores thrown for the Pirates were Aiden Kemnitz and Donovan Heiman with a 130 and 125, respectively.
The Grand Island Northwest Vikings were the next opponent for the Pirates. The Vikings are an experi- enced team with a final score over the Pirates 1,056-589, taking all 8 points.
High scores in the match were Aiden Kemnitz with a 135 and Donovan Heiman with a 131.
The third game was against the Boone Central Cardinals and the Pirates were ready for this match.
The Pirates won 597-492 over the Cardinals and took 7 out of 8 points.
Winning their points were Connor Slater, Noah Johansen, Jaren Hergert and Aiden Kemnitz. High scores were from Aiden Kemnitz and Jaren Hergert with a 132 and 142, respectively. The final regular game was against York Dukes. Like the second match, the Dukes out-bowled the Pirates 1,082-586, taking all 8 points. High scores in the match were thrown by Aiden Kemntiz and Jaren Hergert with scores of 156 and a 136, respectively.
There was a short break in the action for the final count to see which team would be leading the group with the baker’s bracket coming up and which team was already knocked out because their score would not be enough. This is how the teams would stack up for the bracket from first through eighth: Wayne Blue Devils, Grand Island Northwest Vikings, York Dukes, Norfolk Panthers, Humphrey Lindsay Bulldogs, Hartington-Newcastle Wildcats, Howells-Dodge Jaguars, and Plainview-Osmond Pirates.
Boone Central is the team that was knocked out of the tournament.
The Pirates faced off with the Blue Devils in the first round of the bracket.
The Blue Devils didn’t waste much time showing they were the better team, winning first three matches out of 5, 190-125, 192-119, and 188-97.
This was the end for the Pirates. After the tournament, the Pirates added 1 win and 4 losses. The Pirates are now 1-8 on the season.
Boone Central Dual
Both the Lady Pirates and Pirates traveled back to Columbus to take on the Boone Central Cardinals at Westbrook Lanes on Dec. 16. The Lady Pirates must have been half asleep in the first game, losing 539-502 and only taking 2 points. I tried to light a fire under them to not give up hope and it must have worked. The Lady Pirates came out on top in the second games, winning 527-448, taking all 8 points.
This was the first dual the Lady Pirates won since the 2020-21 season, leading after the two regular games 10-6. The Lady Cardinals were given their own pep talk from their coach to not give up and it looked like it worked. The Lady Cardinals barely beat the Lady Pirates in the first two baker games and won the match 11-10.
Leading the Lady Pirates in game one with high scores were Meagan Wagner and Nyome Harding with scores of 119 and 117, respectively.
Those two were the ones who won their point in the first game as well.
In the second game, all Lady Pirates won their point which means Natalee Gatz, Lucea Miller, Meagan Wagner, and Nyome Harding won their point and Siris Stanton and Scarlet Torrey worked together splitting a game to get their point as well. High scores in game two were Natalee Gatz with a 141 and Lucea Miller with a 109.
The Lady Pirates are now 1-9 on the season and will not see action until next January.
The Pirates were looking forward to the rematch since they just beat the Cardinal the previous Saturday and one of the better bowlers was back for the Pirates. First game went the way the Pirates hoped, winning with a score of 653-524 and taking 6 of 8 points. The second game the Pirates improved and took 7 of 8 points, but dropped some pin score with a score of 630-505. The Pirates won the match 13-3 but still needed to do one baker’s game to award those 5 points. The Pirates won that as well with a final score of 102-85. Final score is 18-3 in favor of the Pirates.
The Pirates were led by Donovan Heiman and Jaren Hergert in the first game with scores of 162 and 155, respectively. Winning their point were Donovan Heiman,Aiden Kemnitz and Kooper Gubbels in game one. The second game high scores were from Jaren Hergert and Kooper Gubbels with a 149 and 145, respectively. Winning their point in game two were Jaren Hergert, Noah Johansen, Donovan Heiman, and Kooper Gubbels. The Pirates are now 2-8 and like the ladies will not compete until January.
