Bad feel, bad execution, bad carry, good spare shooting

Whenever I bowl league following several games of tournament bowling the weekend before, I struggle to get a good feel in the ball. Chalk that up as another reason why I eventually need to go to one of the interchangeable thumb systems. But I digress. I struggled to throw quality shots all night long, and the results bore it out. Here's how things went:

Game 1

X 8/ X X 6/ 9/ 7/ X 9/ 9/X - 201

Since I've been leaving 4-9's like it's my job, I opted to start tonight using the Melee Cross, a ball that reads a bit sooner and lays off down the lane compared to some of my other pieces. I had a good look in practice and during the early going, but my feel in the ball was suspect, which led to me grabbing some shots and losing others. I went through the nose in the second, fifth, and seventh, and I went half-10 in the sixth, shaker 7 in the ninth, and 4-pin in the 10th to settle in with a five-strike, clean 201.

Game 2

X X 9/ 72 9/ 8/ 7/ 6/ X 9/X - 186

Realizing the Melee Cross wasn't going to be my best bet as the shot moved inside, I switched to the Brute Strength and started double, 7-pin before going through the nose for a 4-6-7 in the fourth. Things were a struggle from there as my poor feel led to more inconsistent shots. When I missed it a bit, I came in light, and when I hung in it or really got a good handful, I went through the nose. In the end, after the early double, I managed just two more strikes and finished with 186.

Game 3

X X 7/ X 9/ 9/ 9/ X 9/ 8/X - 203

Since I didn't have much going and the pair was really starting to blow up, especially in the midlane, I decided to put the Soul through its first test for score. I liked what I saw as, despite being a solid, the Soul gave me good push up front and a smooth, controllable arc on the backend. I started with a double before tugging the ball and going high for a 3-6-10. I packed the fourth one before leaving a ringing 10 in the fifth and a half-10 in the sixth. I kept fighting from there, but there were only two more strikes to be found the rest of the way, which doomed me to a 203 for the game and a 29-clean, 590 for the night.

Overall, this was a frustrating evening. I wasn't able to get the ball off my hand the way I wanted/needed to, and even when I did, I just couldn't put anything together to get a score going. On the bright side, I didn't leave any 4-9's (a first this season), and my spare shooting was pretty good. I made all four 10-pins, I made the 3-6-9-10 twice, and I even converted the 2-7-8. I suppose I should be happy with that because with as few strikes as I threw, this night could easily have been 520 instead of 590. Still, I'd be lying if I said that I was happy after this outing. Oh well; there is always next week!