LAURINBURG — The Richmond Senior High School boys’ bowling team won its first match on Wednesday and will have to await the results of its second match.
Nearing the end of their Sandhills Athletic Conference regular-season schedule, the Raiders defeated Union Pines High School in the two teams’ first meeting of the winter.
Richmond’s second match against Lee County High School wasn’t completed due to the Yellow Jackets not being present because of final exams. The Raiders rolled their games and Lee County will make up its scores in two weeks.
“Seeing Union Pines for the first time, and because we haven’t been able to see how they’ve been doing, I’m pleased that both the boys and girls got a win today,” head coach Ralph Butler said. “The boys lost the first match but were able to find their lines the rest of the way to win the next three.
“They had solid numbers in both matches tonight and had around a 660 average, which is a score they are capable of surpassing. Their low matches have been really good this year and they should be able to stay in second place until we get all the makeup scores.”
Raiders rattle off three straight wins to defeat Vikings
An early deficit didn’t prove to be too much to handle for the Raiders, who rallied to defeat the Vikings 4-1. Game scores were 156-159, 163-139, 149-136 and 176-137.
Adding the fourth point with a pin total victory of 644-571, Richmond bowled 17 strikes and tied its single-match season high of 15 spares.
Senior William White knocked down eight strikes and three spares to close 11-of-14 frames in the match (79%). He bowled a turkey in the 10th frame of the third game and closed all three frames in the final game.
Sophomore Garrett Mabe provided some depth, knocking down four strikes and a spare in the win, sealing 5-of-6 frames (83%).
Sophomore Sam Thompson chipped in two strikes and four spares, while seniors James Eason and Jullian Cline both closed out three frames.
Lefty sophomore Landon Taylor earned four pick-ups to finish the match tied with Thompson for the team lead.
Cline, White put up big numbers in Lee County match
Even without the Yellow Jackets bowling beside them to create some competition, the Raiders put up a big score of 671 pins in their second match.
Cline and White both rolled seven strikes to lead the team to game scores of 164, 202, 136 and 169.
In his eight tries, Cline was perfect with seven strikes and a spare to close out 100% of his frames. Equally as impressive was White, who added two spares to finish 11-of-14 (79%).
Combining for 19 strikes as a team, Thompson had two, while Eason, Mabe and Taylor each had one. Thompson and Eason both notched three spares, tallying six of Richmond’s dozen pickups.
Mabe, Taylor and sophomore Landon Summerlin rounded out the scoring average of 167.8 pins per game with a spare apiece.
Richmond (8-1) will close out the regular season against Scotland High School next Thursday in Aberdeen. Looking to stay in the hunt for the conference title, the Raiders have 36 points (missing points from two matches this season).
The team will face Scotland High School and also bowl an open match for points and total pins, beginning at 4 p.m.
