MILLSBORO, Delaware — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore stands in 10th place after the first day of competition at the Eastern Shore Hawks Classic, but are just 205 pins behind first place heading into Day 2 after a difficult scoring day for the entire field.
"I think that we were very patient today," senior Alejandra Amezcua (Baja California, Mexico) said. "The lanes were really hard, so we just tried to make the best shot that we could. We worked together to try and have the best scores. They weren't high — like every team — it was a struggle. We just worked through the day. It was really hard."
The National Tenpin Coaches Association No. 14 Hawks (27-10, 6-2 MEAC) opened with a tight 949-922 loss to No. 10 Fairleigh Dickinson. They followed that up with a 969-827 win against No 22 Long Island. After two rounds, UMES was in first-place in total pinfall, but a move down the center saw the scores suffer a bit with different lane play.
Next up was a 951-871 loss to No. 2 Vanderbilt and another (949-833) to No. 5 Sam Houston State. While the Hawks were late, they did find the right move and picked up a 947-929 win against N. 13 Duquesne in the final match of the day.
By the end, the team was ready to take the evening to decompress and try to refocus on Saturday's Traditional round.
"And also analyze what we did today and try to figure out a more viable strategy for tomorrow," Amezcua said. "We might try some surface on the ball and all we can do is make good shots and do it in spurts because there are not a lot of strikes out there."
Heading into Saturday, UMES will be looking to make adjustments, but Petrin isn't expecting dramatic changes in the scoring due to the difficult oil pattern he chose for the event.
"I don't think the scoring pace is going to change much," Petrin said. "If it does go up, it's going to be about 20 to 30 pins a game, so everybody is probably going to make surface adjustments and get closer to the gutter. I think the field made it really hard. It was going to be hard to begin with, but then everyone went left too fast."
Competition begins on Sunday at 9:55 as the teams will bowl five traditional matches.
UMES will bowl a positional round and then face No. 9 Youngstown State, No. 16 Sacred Heart, St. Francis-Brooklyn and No. 17 Tulane.
"You have to make quality shots as the events go on," Petrin said. "Scores are low and it's low for everybody. There is no outlier team who is crushing it. We're only 90 pins out of fourth place. We want to be in first after tomorrow, but fourth gives us a chance to win the event on Sunday."
