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Lefties are all right at Panera Open
HUBBARD
Ryan Ciminelli and Johnny Petraglia Jr. — the top two finishers in the A-squad session of Saturday’s qualifier to begin the PBA Central-East Panera Bread Hubbard Open presented by the Trumbull County Tourism Bureau & DV8 — had only 26 pins separating the two twentysomethings.
When they’re thrown in the round of 16 field with 14 other bowlers beginning today at 10 a.m. at Bell-Wick Bowl, Ciminelli and Petraglia Jr. will be similar in another way: both are lefties.
That alone may make them stand out among mostly right-handers.
At day’s end, Joe Paluszek of Bensalem, Pa., was the top qualifier, followed by Mason Brantley of Detroit, then Ciminelli of Cheektowaga, N.Y., Aaron Gall of New Castle, Pa., Josh Conner of Columbus and Petraglia.
However, Ciminelli and Petraglia, son of PBA and USBC Hall of Famer Johnny Petraglia, used different equipment on Saturday when Ciminelli, the defending champion, rolled 1830 while Petraglia Jr. had 1804. One-hundred competed.
“I threw a ball that’s older than me,” Ciminelli said. “I threw a Black Beauty, which is 30-35 years old,” he said. “I’m only 26.”
He’s almost sure he’ll use rubber again today.
“There’s plenty of friction so that the balls made today are just too aggressive,” he said of his reasoning that rubber will produce better results. “You can’t throw them [newer reactive balls].”
The 27-year-old Petraglia Jr., a New Jersey resident who has ties to the area and is familiar with Bell-Wick, used another substance on Saturday.
“Because I was familiar with the center and I knew how much they hook, when I got my arsenal together, I made sure I brought a lot of balls that go dead straight,” he said of the days when he subbed in a league at Bell-Wick while attending Youngstown State University. “Plastic was the one that worked on Saturday.”
Before Saturday, Petraglia wasn’t setting his sights on today.
“I didn’t have the best practice session, so I went to bed [Friday night] thinking that my goal was just to get a check [from Saturday’s qualifier]. I struck out the last five shots of the first game and bowled 220 and it gave me that little spark, that little fire, and I just ran with it the whole day.”
Of today’s conditions, he said: “Typically, they get a little tighter, down-lane, but they should be very similar. The thing about it is, with this [Hubbard Open] format, all the pins are dropped [his 1804 total that give him +204 is rendered meaningless], so I’m bowling one guy on one pair [for the first round]. At that point, it’s all how good my opponent bowls on one pair,” he said of the best-of-five first round. “It’s kind of a crapshoot.”
Of his +230 being dropped, Ciminelli said, “Just getting to the top 16 is all that matters. The only benefit [of being seeded high] is bowling someone you’ve out-averaged by 15-20 pins a game. You would think that, normally, is an advantage, but you just never know.”
There’s also a drawback — such as today’s best-of-five round of 16 — on one pair of lanes.
“You’re sitting on a pair and you break them down instead of moving across the house. It’s a whole different ball game,” he said of the lane arrangement against an opponent head-to-head.
He said it’s especially disadvantageous for a left-hander.
“Sunday [today], especially for a lefty [of which there aren’t many], is not like you go to a pair that hasn’t been bowled on much; and especially throwing rubber where they transition a lot and the carry gets bad. So it’s a lot easier to keep throwing strikes [by moving onto fresh lanes] than it is sitting on a pair making moves [finding new spots].”
Ciminelli said he’s not really sure what to expect because he’s not used to bowling matchplay with rubber.
“It’s [other than this weekend] all reactive stuff for me, so it’s going to be confusing, different.”