From staff reports
The Glory Days Magazine bowling team, nicknamed “Rolling Thunder”, found itself locked in a dogfight in its season opener of the King Pin-Glory Days Bowling Challenge on Tuesday night at King Pin Bowling & Entertainment Center in Egg Harbor Township.
The Egg Harbor Township girls basketball team came to play, and that was evident from the start, as Mya Pomatto drilled a strike on her very first shot of the two-game series.
Glory Days eventually hung on to win, as publisher Dave O’Sullivan held off a late charge from Katie Reed. With the win, Rolling Thunder starts the season 1-0 and improves to 7-2 all-time, as the squad went 5-2 during the 2015-2016 school year. Once per month, the Glory Days staff team takes on an area high school sports team, and this year there is a new twist to determining the final outcome of the match. If a high school athlete or coach beats either Sully or Glory Days Director of Advertising Bill Lynskey in single-game scoring or series total, that’s a win. In order for Rolling Thunder to record a win, it has to avoid a single-game loss and a series loss.
“When I saw Mya roll a strike on her first frame, I was thinking we were going to be in for quite a challenge, and that ended up being the case,” Sully said. “I was impressed with the EHT girls, for not having much bowling experience they showed a real knack for the sport and you could tell they were good athletes because of the fluidity in their form.”
Lynskey got off to a pretty good start, rolling a 121 to take first place in the opening game, but Sully was locked in a battle with Reed, Pomatto and Bree Strauss. Sully picked up consecutive spares in the final two frames to post a 107, barely edging out Strauss (104), Reed (99) and Pomatto (90). Alyssa Reed, Katie’s cousin, checked in with a 79.
“That was a really close call. I knew by the eighth frame Bill was probably going to win that game, so it was up to me to play well in the final few frames to make sure Rolling Thunder didn’t suffer an early upset,” Sully said. “Mya and Bree were tough competitors, and you could see as the frames went by that Katie was really getting her game face on. It’s easy to see why she is one of the best athletes in the school. Any kind of competition brings out the her competitive fire.”
Game 2 saw a vast improvement in most of the scores, as Courtney McCafferty saw a 14-pin increase while Liana Fiore made a big jump to finish with a 94 in the second game and a 146 series. Katie Reed and Pomatto gave Sully another run for his money in the second game. Lynksey ran away with the victory with a 171 to finish with a two-game series score of 292, so, once again, it came down to Sully trying to hold off a late charge from the Eagles, who called their team “2Nice”.
Sully came up with a big strike in the fourth frame and followed that up with another in the sixth, but Katie Reed answered with a strike in the seventh and a spare in the eighth to keep the pressure on. Meanwhile, Pomatto also scored a strike in the seventh, and knocked down nine pins in the eighth frame.
But Sully fired a strike in the ninth frame, his fourth of the night, and picked up a spare plus six addition pins in the final frame to finish with a 147 for the game and 254 series. Katie Reed posted a 127 for Game 2 and finished with a 226 series, while Pomatto posted a 121-211. Strauss rolled 91 in the final game to finish with a 195, and all six EHT competitors finished better than 125 for the series.
“We’re in our second year now of the King Pin-Glory Days Challenge, and it’s evident these kids really want to beat Rolling Thunder, so I don’t think it’s going to get any easier,” Sully said.
If your high school team is interested in challenging Glory Days’ Rolling Thunder team, send a direct message to Sully on Twitter (@GDsullysays), or email sully@acglorydays.com. The next challenge is scheduled for Dec. 13.