By Matt Turer — mturer@ky3.com
@MattTurer
Springfield, Mo. — The hotter Ozark got, the louder the yells coming from Ethan Barbee seemed to get.
The Tiger met every strike and spare with a holler, a high-five and an embrace, even and especially when those bowls weren’t his own, and two-seed Ozark erased a 1-0 series deficit in the best-of-three finals format to upset top-seed Springfield Central in Tuesday’s Springfield City Championship.
“It was a grind,” Ozark head coach Ted Barbee said. “[Central’s] first game they came out hot, so we just had to ride it out. And then we picked up spares and had a good string at the end.”
Hot is an understatement when talking about Central’s start. The Bulldogs put up a 241 team score in Game 1 of match play to Ozark’s 160 inside a packed Enterprise Lanes. But the Tigers battled back in Game 2, scoring a 182 to Central’s 164.
Ozark jumped up 20 more points in Game 3, defeating Central 202-181 for its second city championship in the program’s sixth year.
CLICK HERE FOR SPRINGFIELD CITY CHAMPIONSHIP PHOTOS
“I know that every game is a new start,” Ozark senior and anchor bowler Spencer Pennington said. “Everyone has good games. Everyone has bad games.”
Pennington, who is headed to state with Ozark for the fourth year in a row, has been having more good than bad games this year. He leads the league with a 206 average and is second to Glendale’s Zack Hale for the highest single game of the season, with Hale’s a 289 and Pennington’s a 279.
“Pennington did awesome [tonight],” Barbee said. “He finished strong for us every game, and I’m very proud of him.”
Team scores in the finals bracket were made up of five bowlers combining for a single 10-frame game, with the higher team score advancing.
Ozark came into the year’s final event before state ranked third in the Show Me High School Bowling standings for Springfield-area teams, a spot behind Glendale and two behind Central.
“[Central] bowled the best all season,” Barbee said. “They were the most consistent. Our team was a little up and down. We had a couple bad weeks. But we had the potential to hang with anybody.”
Ozark was staring at last place after Week 1, until Barbee, who’s also the Drury University men’s bowling coach, decided to light a bit of a fire under his bowlers.
“I was little stern with them,” Barbee said. “Told them they have high potential and have some young kids on the team, and then they just turned it on from there. I’m so proud of them.”
Ozark’s championship team is made up of Pennington, Barbee, Austin Roberts, Jordan Williams, Joshua Dowell and Mistena Renteria.
Central’s runner-up group consists of Terrance Stacye, Eric Cowan, Luke Butzlaff, DJ Swanson, John Howard, Alex Hutson and Matthew Powers.
Parkview defeated Willard in the opening round/fifth-place game, 196-188. Glendale defeated Parkview in the second round/fourth-place game 169-161. Ozark defeated Glendale in the semifinals/third-place game 18-147.
Kickapoo, Republic, Nixa, Hillcrest and Springfield Catholic all competed earlier Tuesday but didn’t qualify for the finals bracket.
The top four league finishers during the regular season qualify for state, which means Central, Glendale, Ozark and Willard will head to the state competition Memorial Day weekend in Union, Mo.
