7-10 Adds Up to a Win for Hoskins

Tim Criss rode the wave of luck and emotion he had been on all week into the final match at the Professional Bowlers Assn. ACDelco Classic at Lakewood on Saturday. But with only five frames separating him from the $52,000 winner’s check, he wiped out.

With a four-pin lead over No. 1-seeded Steve Hoskins entering the sixth frame, Criss left a 7-10 split, bowling’s most difficult shot. When he picked up only one pin, the momentum swung to Hoskins, who won his seventh title, 230-202.

“After the 7-10 split, I knew the match was mine,” Hoskins said. “I made good shots on [frames] six and seven, and it was over.”

And the good shots didn’t stop at seven for Hoskins. After Criss left the open frame in the sixth, Hoskins bowled nothing but strikes until he had the match won.

“One of my best attributes is that I’m a clutch player,” Hoskins said. “I just want to continually throw good when I need it.”

One time Hoskins needed a big shot was in the fourth frame, when he left a 4-10 split. He converted the spare, bringing the Cal Bowl crowd to its feet.

“That was huge,” Hoskins said. “If I don’t make it, he probably wins. I didn’t want to give him a chance.

“That put the air back into my sails.”

And while the spares didn’t go Criss’ way, he still believed he had a chance, even after the sixth.

“I was getting the breaks early,” he said. “After the 7-10, I thought, ‘I can’t get down. I’ll just get the one and I’m still in it.’ ”

He had good reason to be optimistic, even after the open frame. Friday, Criss trailed Danny Wiseman for the fourth and final championship-round qualifying spot by 29 pins with one frame remaining.

Criss struck out in the 10th and moved into the TV round by one pin.

“After that, I felt a sense of everything else is a bonus,” Criss, a two-time champion said. “I just rode the wave, and it wouldn’t be a disappointment if I didn’t win.”

Criss rallied to win the first TV match of the day, a three-man shootout.

Trailing by as many as 17 pins in the fourth frame, he bowled four consecutive strikes and took the lead over Robert Smith and Ricky Ward for good in the sixth frame.

It was Criss’ third appearance in the TV round this year.

“It’s been a strange year. I haven’ bowled as well as I can yet,” he said. “But I still keep getting shots at the title. I’ve been very fortunate.”

But not even fortune could help him against Hoskins, an 11-year veteran of the tour.

Using the new crowd setup to his advantage, Hoskins fed off the fans, who grew louder with every frame he rolled.

“This was a wonderful crowd. I love it this way,” Hoskins said of the new configuration in which fans are seated along the lanes on both sides of the bowlers.

“I’m an emotional bowler, and it allows me to relax out there,” he said.

But Hoskins doesn’t have much time to relax. He competes in next week’s Oregon Open at Portland.

He believes he can be the one riding a wave of momentum to more success on the tour.

“I’ve been bowling good for the last month,” he said. “Last week, I never felt comfortable [at the Showboat Invitational in Las Vegas]. But this week, everything fell into place.”