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Jordon wins PBA Hubbard Open
HUBBARD
The final day of the 2015 Hubbard Open had plenty of ups and downs among the final 16 matchplay qualifiers until the tattooed Kelly Jordon of Marion stood as champion Sunday afternoon as the event concluded its fifth year at Bell-Wick Bowl.
Jordon, who was the 12th-highest qualifier after Saturday’s action, climbed upward during the 12-game matchplay session before securing the top-seeded spot for the five-man stepladder finals of the event also known as the PBA Trumbull County Tourism Bureau Central/East Open presented by DV8.
Jordon was joined in the stepladder phase by Kyle Troup (Taylorsville, N.C.) and Rick Graham (Lancaster, Pa.), who were the 11th and 13th-best qualifiers, respectively, after Saturday’s eight games, along with defending champion Eugene McCune (Munster, Ind.) and Patrick Dombroski (Parma).
Conversely, Johnathan Bower (Middletown, Pa.), the seventh-highest qualifier when Sunday’s bowling started at 10 a.m., vaulted to the top after eight games of matchplay, then dropped out of the picture by the 12th matchplay game.
After surviving matchplay and the weekend’s 20 games, Troup was second-seeded, McCune third-seeded, Graham No. 4 and Patrick Dombrowski No. 5.
When the dust settled, Jordon — a tattoo artist by trade — edged McCune, 199-193, for his first regional crown and the $2,500 first-place check.
Heading into the 10th frame, Jordon trailed McCune, 184-179, but McCune had a 4-6 split on his first throw.
When Jordon saw McCune’s shot, what went through his mind?
“I was thinking that I’m going to win my first title,” said Jordon, whose 10th frame included a 9-count/spare followed by a last-ball strike.
“It’s always nerve-wracking when you’re bowling for a title, but I got through it,” said Jordon, who participated in seven regionals in 2014 after moving back to Ohio from San Diego.
While waiting through the Graham–Dombrowski, McCune-Dombrowski and McCune-Troup stepladder matches, suspense built for the 40-year-old Jordon.
“It’s no fun,” he said of the spell, “but when you’re bowling good, you’re anxious to bowl.”
A sixth-place finish in Wapakoneta last year was Jordon’s previous best regional. Before Hubbard, his first regional of 2015 was a junior-senior doubles event. Hubbard was his first singles regional.
“I’m off to a good start,” Jordon said.
Not long after losing the title match, McCune was still in disbelief.
“I knew I had to strike out because he hadn’t missed on the right lane [No. 18]. If I struck there, I won. I tried to strike, but, instead, I hit the pocket [high] and prayed I’d strike. I thought it was a decent shot, but that lane was hooking and my ball kept moving and kept on going higher [toward the head pin]. I just needed to get a break on that split.”
Both inaugural HO champion Ryan Ciminelli and E.J. Tackett, a third- and fourth-place HO finisher in the past, had identical responses that “everything went wrong,” on Sunday.
“I won four matches [out of 12], that’s it,” said Tackett, “and I averaged 235. I did what I had to do, but I always got everybody’s best game.”
Adding to his disappointment was that he lost his last two matches by a total of 12 pins. He missed stepladders by four pins behind Dombrowski, 4,870 to 4,866.
Ciminelli said he tried everything and every ball he could think of.
“I couldn’t get the ball to strike,” he said. “I left a lot of 7-pins and, as soon as I changed balls to manipulate carry, I’d lose my ball motion. Then I tried making a big move back out, but finished with 140. Everything that could go wrong went wrong.”
As the area’s first Sunday qualifier, Campbell’s Robert Harvischak was 15th with 4,235 pinfall.
The 25-year-old said he wasn’t nervous, but, rather, he couldn’t get comfortable on the lanes.
“It was all me. I’d get lined up, then lose everything for two or three games. Of my 12, the last five were quality.”