Chris Procida, bowling with a 15-pin handicap over three games, shot games of 244, 265 and 277 en route to a 786 scratch series and 801 gross pinfall over the weekend to take over the lead heading into the finals of the 46th Staten Island Singles Classic at Rab’s Country Lanes.
The Top 24 finals will be staged Saturday at 1 p.m. at Rab’s. The winner will take home $2,000.
Chris Riordan, competing scratch, fired games of 259, 278 and 247 for a 784 pinfall which secured him of second position.
Perennial finalists Tim McAuliffe, Jeff Scire and George Cretella round out the Top 5,making for an exciting finals.
Scire is aiming for two historic milestones as he would be the first bowler to ever win the event four times. He is currently tied with most wins in tournament history alongside Rob Vinci.
He is also going for another feat never done before, the Staten Island bowling triple crown. Scire won the SIUSBC Masters in December, Jim Elliot’s New Years Single Classic in January and is looking to cap it off with Donnie Walters SI Singles Classic. The current bowling season started in September of 2023 and concludes in June of 2024.
Tournament director Mike Ruffe said he spoke to Scire after his squad-leading performance that guaranteed him a spot in the finals on how much this means to him now that he has made it.
“More than you can imagine,” Scire told Ruffe.
Rounding out the finals are former champions Bill Salvatore, Anthony Arias and defending champion Cameron LaPlant.
Top 24 after final weekend of qualifying
Pos Name Scratch Total
1. Chris Procida* 786 801
2. Chris Riordan* 784 784
3. Tim McAuliffe* 763 763
4. Jeff Scire* /** 742 742
5. George Cretella* 736 736
6. Rob Marcello 717 732
7. Tom Barnes* 696 732
8. Rob D’Onofrio 721 721
9. Mordy Friedman 685 721
10. Nick LaRocca 693 720
11. Josh Warner 682 718
12. Billy Salvatore 712 718
13. Joe Scianna* 715 715
14. Paula Meduri ** 643 715
15. Joe Bracco* 704 713
16. Stephen Basile 671 713
17. Matthew Cody 697 709
18. Mike Devito 684 708
19T. James Trapanese 671 707
19T. Nicole Maugeri 653 707
21. Anthony Arias 706 706
22. Jeff Martin 706 706
23. Derek Gilbert 701 701
24. Cameron LaPlant 695 695
Official: 3/30/2024 Average Verification Completed
Ties broken by high scratch game
* Denotes Squad Leader
** Denotes Guaranteed Female / Senior