Fresno State competes in the Desert

The Bulldogs returned early this morning from the Valley of the Sun where they competed in two Tier 2 tournaments hosted by Grand Canyon University and Arizona State University. The first tournament, the Devil’s Dual, was competed on College Bowling Long pattern #7, a 46' oil pattern. The format consisted of 6 regular team games, the last of which was the first round of the elimination bracket.

After an up and down day, the Dogs put together their highest team game of the season, 1203. The strong finish nearly catapulted the Bulldogs to the ranking points win, moving from 5th to 3rd, and ending up just 47 pins behind leader ASU. Side note....the 1200 game did earn the varsity team the highly prized Chicken Dinner from Mrs. Preble! (Wish bonus ranking points came with that dinner!)

After defeating UNLV in the round of eight, the Bulldogs faced Arizona State in the semi-final round of the bracket. The Dogs won game 1 of the best of three baker match but were unable to close the match out and ASU advanced to face GCU in the final. Congrats to the ASU for earning the 1st place ranking points and GCU for winning the elimination bracket.

We're very appreciative of the effort made by Ben Canfield of Grand Canyon University in engaging a format that tested the athletes with the elimination format. Also, we were happy to be there to be part of the recognition of Ben's 10th year of leading the GCU program. Well done! Congrats Ben!

The Bulldogs were led by freshman Eric Boscacci, who recently made the jump from the JV to the varsity team. Eric finished 8th place individually with an average of 203 for the six games. Finishing in 9th place individually, just two pins behind Eric, was freshman Bryce Nakunz. Graduate student Spencer Norvell posted a strong 228 average for his 5 games and Zach Davis averaged 207 for his 5 games on the strength of his last game of 290!

The second Tier 2 was called the Antelope Shoot-Out and was competed on College Bowling Medium #8, a 40' pattern . The format for this tournament was 30 baker games bowled in four game blocks. Again, the team struggled, this time finishing in 4th place, 200 pins behind ranking points winner ASU. Definitely not the finish we were looking for but we'll use this disappointment to improve over the next three weeks.

Equipment in play this week:

Eric Boscacci- Hammer Effect Tour, Hammer Envy Tour Pearl, Track Cypher and Black Hammer 78.

Bryce Nakunz- Hammer Effect Tour, Purple Hammer and Envy Tour.

Spencer Norvell- Hammer 3.0, Hammer Effect, Eruption Pearl, and Purple Hammer.

Zach Davis- Black Hammer 78 and Purple Hammer.

Dominic Ortiz- Hammer Effect Tour, Hammer Effect Columbia Super Cuda and Purple Hammer

Jarrett Smith- Brunswick Mesmerize, Purple Hammer and Brunswick Vaporize.

Neil Weinstein- Brunswick Mesmerize, Purple Hammer, Ebonite GB4, Brunswick Evo Response and Brunswick Teal Rhino.

Big thank you’s to the Norvell and Nakunz parents who made the long trip to Glendale and took care of us…..it’s always great to have the support, especially so far from home. Special thank you to the Weinstein family for covering team dinner on Friday night!

As always, we couldn’t do this without our sponsors, The Brunswick Corporation, Genesis and Vise Inc.

Next up for the Bulldogs is a trip to San Jose, February 8-9th.

Go Bulldogs!