Bellmore-Merrick Keeps Rolling as Hough Dominates

With one match to go before their championship match against Wantagh next week, coach Joe Bianca wanted to make sure that his team wasn't going to have a let-down against Plainedge on Tuesday.

Ricky Hough certainly wasn't going to let that happen.

With games as high as 269 and 267, Mepham's Ricky Hough led his team with a 743 series as they won all three games against Plainedge, and took the accumulative score to wrap up the victory and the sweep, 11-0.

"Ricky's day was incredible," said Bianca. "I expect him to continue doing this. He had almost an 800 series and if he does that, we have a good shot at winning the counties."

After opening the first game with a spare, Hough proceeded to bowl six strikes in a row before sparing the eighth frame. He then closed off the game with four more strikes. In total, he bowled 10 out a possible 12 strikes in the game. Chris Vogel of Calhoun had the next highest score with a 182. The rest of the scores were underwhelming, with Calhoun's Dan Mueller bowling a 158, and Mepham's CJ Marino a 138. However, Hough's 267 was enough to carry the team to victory as they edged Plainedge, 738-678.

Today marked the team's second match in two days, and Hough credited his effort yesterday for his success today.

"I worked on some new things yesterday," said Hough. "and that helped me today in the first and second games."

Despite setting the bar high, Hough still managed to outdo himself in the second game, finishing with a 269. Again, he started off the game with a spare, but then bowled four consecutive strikes. After sparing the sixth frame, he then proceeded to bowl six strikes in a row to end his game. Like the first game, he bowled 10 out of a possible 12 strikes. Also bowling in the this game was Calhoun sophomore Tom Bianco. He replaced CJ Marino and was bowling for the first time ever on varsity. After shaking off the jitters early, he finished with a 164. Vogel chipped in with a 171 while Mueller broke the 200-mark with a 201. The team crushed Plainedge by the score of 805-677.

"I thought we did pretty well," said Mueller. "The lanes broke up early and as a whole I was very happy with our performance."

Hough finally managed to come down to earth in the final game with a score of 207. The rest of his teammates picked up the slack, as Bianco rebounded nicely with a 203. Mueller bowled a 175, and Vogel had the high game with a 235. The team bowled its highest total yet, defeating Plainedge 820-746.

"The first two games I couldn't really find a mark and I was having a lot of trouble," Vogel said. "But in the third game I finally got big strikes when I needed them, and hopefully we can continue and claim first place."

The team completed the sweep by winning the accumulative total, 2,363-2,101. Hough, however, knows that his team is still capable of improvement.

"We weren't as good as yesterday" Hough said. "We were a little shaky today and we can do better."

The team will now shift its attention towards Wantagh, who they will play in the championship next Thursday. In three prior matches against Wantagh, Bellmore-Merrick has lost once by the score of 8-3, and defeated them twice,with both games also by the score of 8-3.