Bowling: Sal Diaz confirms breakout season with 717 series in Mesquite

Sal Diaz erased any doubt about whether he’s having a breakout sophomore season by orchestrating a virtuoso performance at the Virgin River Bowling Center.

For starters, he began league play with a clean 237 and followed with a clean 227.

Next, building on the momentum of two clean games, he put an exclamation point on a stellar outing with a 254 gem with nine strikes including a 6-bagger paving the way for his first-ever 700 series, a jaw-dropping 718 with 23 strikes.

And a major reason for his breakout season is a change made in his delivery to a two-handed one from a one-handed one while bowling in two summer leagues following his freshman 2021-22 winter season.

And understandably, making a change in how a bowler delivers a bowling ball can yield small or modest improvement, and other times the change can be a seismic one. And his adoption of a two-handed delivery has led to a seismic change in his scores as they’ve rocketed higher to include multiple 600s, including a 660 and 670, and now a standout 718 series.

After finishing his freshman season with a 145 average, he will finish this season in the 180s, and it’s basically a fait accompli his bowling future includes more 700s.

His favorite pro bowler is Chris Prather and his next goal in bowling is a 300 game.

Away from bowling he does some skateboarding, plays card games, and is a fan of the Green Bay Packers, FC Barcelona and the LSU Tigers.

In other action, Scott Mattingly (734-269, 238, 227) did some exceptional bowling with 25 strikes and 11 spares in a rare clean 734 series, while Mike Saldivar (709-257) threw only the third 700 booked last week at the VRBC.

Meanwhile, Dave Pershing has been a great new addition to the Mesquite bowling season and navigated the lanes for a season-high 699 series on games of 256, 232, 211 and has a season-high 288 from earlier this season.

And Orlyn Meyer continued a red-hot scoring streak by chucking a season-high 692 which included an 8-bagger in a 266 game. He’s a humongous fan of North Dakota State Bison football and his 692 topped his previous two best series scores of 680 and 666, and one can’t help but like the consistency of both Wayne Donnafield (689, 234, 232, 223) with 23 strikes and Al Gans (688-236, 228, 224) with 24 strikes.

Milan Carr (649-226) is a very cerebral bowler who knows avoiding open frames is a blueprint for success on the lanes and he did exactly that by going 12-of-13 on his non-split spare attempts, while Dylan Kesl (643-234, 218, 191) had his best overall outing of the season and was one open frame away from a pretty rare clean series.

Jack Baker (619-216) had another good week, and Dean Sheppard’s (612-232) efficient outing had only three open frames and all 3 came on splits, while Michael “Smurffzzz” Ramirez tossed a 634 set with a 259 game with 10 strikes including a 7-bagger.

In single game play, Dean Baum rolled a 231, Harry Uncles fired seven strikes in a 225, Larry Willis booked a 216 and Jack Northover who can’t wait for his L.A. Dodgers to begin regular season play logged a 212.

Koa Pak Ned’s powerful strike ball was key in a 210, Ricky Trujillo who’s batting average was over 300 for three straight seasons on the Virgin Valley High School baseball team tossed a 209, and southpaw Larry Moultrie (590) posted a 204 in Early Risers League action.

On the women’s side of the ledger, Bev Cormani (591-208, 202, 181) had marks on 12-of-14 non-split spare attempts, Debbie Hansen’s 16 strikes proved pivotal in rolling a season-high 586 on games of 212, 202 and 161.

Sandy Sheppard’s 558 effort included a 217 game, Charlene Heiden the secretary of the Gamblers 4 Aces League (534-192) put up good numbers, and Dodie Melendez who was also a league secretary when living in Utah chalked up a season high 515 set with only one open in a 194 game, while Cheryl Rogers KO’d 508 pins.

In single game action, LoriJo Turner (599) bagged a 241, Sherry Serrano’s 128 average made her 204 with eight strikes arguably the most impressive game of the week, and it’s great seeing Kathy Legan chalk up a 202, and in spite of all the losing, she’s still a Chicago Bears fan, while Suzie Fehseke punched out a 201 and she’s an instructor for linedance classes on Monday’s and Wednesday’s at the Rec Center.

Troy May played third base in baseball and had a reputation as a clutch hitter and who would “go yard” on any hanging curve ball picked up the 3-6-7 split, while his wife, Wendy, picked up the 5-6-7 split … Eddie Lopez threw six strikes in a 197 and absent 3 opens would have had a really nice deuce … Nancy Egge’s only higher game than her 178 this season in Ladies Trio League play is a 188 … Toni Gans converted the 2-7 split and she does an extraordinary job in charge of bowling in the Mesquite Senior Games … Kathy Bussman of the popular Gutter Girls team in the T.G.I.F League began each of her 3 games with a strike, and a 178 game topped her previous high 161 … Pat Nikolay’s clutch179 game helped his team scratch out a narrow win in T.G.I.F League play.

Darren Simonds 656-230; Mike Gentry 618-213; Jerry Holloway 617-217; Austin Finster 609-223; John Hollaway (595) 235; Mike Rogers 216; Dennis Hartley 213; Doug Love 213; Bill Funk 209; Dave Cirbo 590-204; Gil Niimi 204;Frank Addamo 203; Ken Kaylor 590-202; Dave Harris 202; Steve Serrano 202; Jeff Harmes 201; Todd Muholland 200; Gayle Parison 512.