Ingraham, Giordano and Valenti into the Merced County Bowling Hall of Fame

The Merced County Bowling Hall of Fame will induct three new honorees this year in Bruce Ingraham (Ability), Michael Giordano (ability), and Larry Valenti Jr. (Ability).

The annual Hall of Fame dinner will be held on Saturday, April 1 at the Atwater Community Center. Tickets are now on sale at the desk at Bellevue Bowl for $25, or any association directors will be selling them. Ingraham will be introduced by Barbara Bustos at the dinner, Giordano by Patty Harrell, and Valenti Jr. by his father, Larry Valenti Sr.

The dinner also features the awarding of $4,000 scholarships to local students from Merced County who will be continuing their education in the coming years. The dinner always has a great auction going on along with a giant raffle during the evening.

Shooting stars – In the Tuesday Seniors, Ed Huddleston finished with a 226-156-236. Atwater Merchants had Don Kendrick rolling a 278/615, Hugh Gary a 246/709, Corey Phillips a 279/759 and Marcus Kendrick a 677.

The classic had David Garcez rolling a 256 and David Souza shooting lights out with his highest series ever with a 680.

Black Oak Lanes senior results – A total of 104 Valley men and women seniors competed in the 12th Annual Senior No-Tap tournament at Black Oak Lanes on two Fridays recently. Taking the championships in the men’s and women’s division were the husband and wife duo of Mike and Debra Silva of Sonora.

Silva, with a handicap score of 876 for $58, coming in third was yours truly with a 819 for $46, in ninth place was John Eversole with a 766 for $22, and a new comer in the area was Greg Bennett in 10th for $19.

Silva, lead with a handicap score of 857 for $58. Our only local placing in the women’s was Tia Pretzer with 750 in ninth for $18. During the tournament there were several high pots rolled with some bucks for Pretzer, Eversole, Dick Miller, John Krone, and your reporter.

Up next for the area senior is a regular 9-pin no-tp at McHenry Bowl this Friday. they host a pot-luck lunch at noon, sign-up start at 12:30 p.m., and balls start rolling at 1 p.m.

BVL Championships – The following association bowlers will be rolling in the California Helen Duvall Veterans BVL Championship on Saturday, March 25 at the Manteca Bowl.

They were winners of our local BVL tournament: John Montoya, Dave Egleston, Jesse Andrade, Dominic Pugliese, Mike Avalos, two time winner Dawn Fernandez, Verna Fellows, Yolanda Walsh, Lynnell DiFrancia, Leticia Andrade, Devin Cortinas, and Andrew Aiagi will be representing our association at Manteca.

Manteca CVSBC results – There were 64 men and women rolling at the Manteca Bowl in the second singles tournament of the year for the Central Valley Senior Bowling Club last Saturday paying down to 26 places. The top three qualifiers were Tracy’s Jimmie Golden with a 943, Kelly Lewis of Modesto with a 942, and Modesto’s Sheri Cole with a 828.

In the stepladder roll off had Cole rolling a 219 to Lewis rolling a 194. Cole advanced to the final match to roll Golden, the top seed. Golden edged out Cole with a 246 to a 243 to take the Championship and pocket $200, Cole $175, and Lewis $150.

Coming up next for the club is a singles event at West Lane Bowl in Stockton on Saturday, April 15 with a start time of 1 p.m. check-in begins at 11 a.m.

Friendship doubles set for April 2 – Our Merced/Atwater Women’s 500 Club will be hosting their yearly Friendship Doubles tournament on Sunday, April 2. This is a 9-pin no-tap tournament that has doubles teams that consist of a 500 club member and a woman non-member guest. Entry fee if $23 per bowler and you will use your 2015-16 composite book average. First ball is set to roll at 1:30 p.m. Entries close on Friday, March 31.

Note: Our local 500 Club leads the Red Headpin leader board. More on this in next weeks column.

This story was originally published March 22, 2017 at 9:51 PM with the headline "Ingraham, Giordano and Valenti into the Merced County Bowling Hall of Fame."