BATON ROUGE - The LHSAA announced their high school bowling playoffs brackets on Monday which begins on March 30 with the two boys/coed brackets.

Crescent City Sports’ outstanding writer and bowling expert Lenny Vangilder has sent me a chart matching the potential lineups for each of the first-round matchups and on paper, the number one and two seeds in one boys/coed division and the No. 1 seed in the other are “paper” underdogs in their opening round matches and the girls No. 2 seed is also a “paper” underdog.

Now you and I both know these matches are not contested on paper, but it certainly makes it worth a look in on these matches as the playoffs begin.

In the Class 5A Division I, No. 1 seed Captain Shreve with its expected six player average, is a 44-pin on paper underdog to No. 16 seed Dutchtown. Shreve is still looking to get through one of these opening matches despite being a top seed the last few years.

No. 2 seed Terrebonne is a 39-pin underdog to No. 15 Denham Springs and No. 8 Southside 163 pin underdog to No. 9 St. Paul’s.

The defending champion is multi-time winner Brother Martin.

Four teams are paper underdogs in Division II (Class 4A and below) boys/coed including undefeated No. 1 seed Episcopal which is 20 pins under No. 16 Loranger. Episcopal has an advantage in the three lowest averages, but Loranger has two 200 average bowlers at the 5-6 positions.

In the middle of the seeds, No. 6 Madison Prep, No. 7 Houma Christian and No. 8 St. Thomas Moore (46 pins under No. 9 U-High) will possibly have to bowl above average to get their wins.

Standing in the way of everyone in Division II is Patrick Taylor at No. 5 which puts out averages of 216-216-210-205-205-202 for a total of 1,254 and of course defending champion Archbishop Shaw.

In the girl’s division, defending champion top seed Archbishop Chapelle has a 358-pin advantage over No. 16 seed Houma Christian. Central Lafourche, the No. 2 seed, is 15 pins under Academy of Our Lady, the No. 15 seed.

Again it’s all on paper and probably will mean nothing, but it is a little fascinating looking at some of the numbers.

The singles entries were also announced and it took a 189 to qualify for the boy’s competition and a 150 to make the girls cut. In all, there were 42 boys that averaged over 200 and three girls. That final is on April 11 at All Star. Early totals show 20 boys and 20 girls qualified for singles from the Baton Rouge region.

Here’s how the playoffs will shake out (first two rounds on same day):

LHSAA Bowling Playoffs

Boys/Co-Ed Division I

First Round - March 30 -- at All Star Lanes, Baton Rouge (all matches 12:15 p.m.)

(1) Captain Shreve vs. (16) Dutchtown

(8) Southside vs. (9) St. Paul’s

(5) Archbishop Rummel vs. (12) Destrehan

(4) Alexandria vs. (13) Acadiana

(3) Slidell vs. (14) Byrd

(6) East Ascension vs. (11) Catholic-BR

(7) Brother Martin vs. (10) St. Amant

(2) Terrebonne vs. (15) Denham Springs

Second Round – March 30 -- at All Star Lanes (all matches 3:30 p.m.)

Semifinals and Finals – April 9 -- at Premier Lanes Entertainment Center, Gonzales

Boys/Co-Ed Division II

First Round - March 30 -- at Bowlero Kenner (all matches 1 p.m.)

(1) Episcopal vs. (16) Loranger

(8) St. Thomas More vs. (9) University Lab

(5) Patrick Taylor vs. (12) Belle Chasse

(4) Vandebilt Catholic vs. (13) Holy Savior Menard

(3) Archbishop Shaw vs. (14) St. Michael

(6) Madison Prep vs. (11) Ellender

(7) Houma Christian vs. (10) South Terrebonne

(2) French Settlement vs. (15) Notre Dame

 Second Round – March 30 -- at Bowlero Kenner (all matches 3:30 p.m.)

Semifinals and Finals – April 9 -- at Premier Lanes Entertainment Center, Gonzales

Girls

First Round – April 1 -- at All Star Lanes, Baton Rouge (all matches 12:15 p.m.)

(1) Archbishop Chapelle vs. (16) Houma Christian

(8) South Terrebonne vs. (9) Alexandria

(5) Patrick Taylor vs. (12) Lafayette

(4) St. Joseph’s Academy vs. (13) Bossier

(3) St. Amant vs. (14) Dutchtown

(6) Denham Springs vs. (11) St. Scholastica

(7) Captain Shreve vs. (10) Albany

(2) Central Lafourche vs. (15) Academy of Our Lady

Second Round – April 1 -- at All Star Lanes (all matches 3:30 p.m.)

Semifinals and Finals – April 8 -- at Premier Lanes Entertainment Center, Gonzales

BRAND NEW TOURNAMENT DEBUTS FRIDAY AT ALL STAR

If you were a fans of the generational Baskin-Robbins later BR Singles that ran for decades at Circle and Metro Bowl in Baton Rouge and more recently at All Star Lanes, you might like this weekend’s debut of the All Star BR Bowler’s Mart Handicap Tournament that begins on Friday night.

The three-game qualifiers are at 6 p.m. Friday; 9:30 a.m., Noon and 3 p.m. Saturday; and a final squad at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. In all 32 qualifiers advance to the Sunday Noon Finals – the top 24 qualifiers overall and eight squad advancers. Then it is one-game roll offs with the field being reduced each round until in the sixth match the top two bowl one game for the title. 

The finals format is very interesting, kind of an eliminator format but with byes that would allow a top four qualifier to only need to get through three matches to win the title.

I wish we had space to talk about that 152-136 lowest combined score PBA final from Sunday, but you may want to check out the CW replay on youtube.com. By the way, the USBC Master’s final airs this Sunday.

We’ll have all the high school playoff results next Monday.

Until then, good luck and good bowling,

                                             Kent Lowe