COLUMN: Joe Hawk

     Walter Ray Williams Jr. dropped to his knees, a look of pained disbelief creasing his bearded face. Fifteen feet away, Parker Bohn III also dropped to the floor, a look of stunned disbelief creasing his mustachioed face.
      Two bowlers, two competitors, one reaction separated by the slightest of emotional degrees.
      If Saturday's stepladder finals of the 38th Showboat Invitational didn't generate sufficient pathos when the 33-year-old Bohn came within one pin of rolling a 300 game in the semifinals, then it surely went over the top in the title match of the nationally televised Pro Bowlers Association Tour event.
      Needing only an eight-count on his second ball of the 10th frame to tie Bohn and just a nine-count to win, Williams, the Tour's top-rated bowler, shockingly left the "bucket" -- the 2-4-5-8 -- to surrender a 206-204 decision.
      For Williams, it was instant torment. For Bohn, it was instant redemption.
      For the 300 or so local bowling fans who crowded around Lanes 51 and 52 of the historic bowling center, it was instant melodrama.
      Even veteran announcers Chris Schenkel and Nelson Burton Jr. couldn't have asked for anything more -- and they've seen just about everything in their decades of broadcasting the popular wintertime Tour.
      "Losing is not fun," Williams said moments after the crushing defeat, in what easily could be the sports understatement of the year. "But I bowled well all week.
      "I needed to make just one more shot," he added, his voice trailing off as his eyes dropped to the floor. "I just can't believe it."
      If Williams, this week's wire-to-almost-wire finisher, couldn't believe it, he had nothing on Bohn, who entered the day seeded fourth and had to beat Pete Weber, Mike Miller and Steve Jaros just to reach the championship game.
      The winner of last week's ACDelco Classic when he doubled in the 10th, Bohn was flabbergasted when Williams, after striking to open the 10th, left the block of four pins standing.
      "When he opened with the strike, I just figured it was over at that point," Bohn said, the incredulity of the outcome still causing him to shake his head minutes afterward. "Then, lo and behold, he gets six -- and I'm telling you, that was the furthest thing from my mind.
      "I mean, if he makes a bad shot, he's going to leave a weak 10 or a solid eight or a four-pin. It's going to be an unfortunate break he's not going to carry. And he's still going to get nine."
      It would have been easy for Bohn to have claimed "divine intervention" in the title game, considering the way his semifinal match against Jaros ended.
      But he didn't. Instead, he attributed it to "destiny" and "luck."
      "You really need to be in the right place at the right time, wherever you are in this world," said the left-hander from Jackson, N.J., who reeled off 11 strikes before coming up high in the pocket on his final ball. Bohn generated enough pin action to knock down the stubborn 7- and 10-pins, but the six refused to even teeter.
      It stood as firm as Williams' bucket combination would one match later.
      "I really tried to make a clean shot off my hand," said Bohn, who claimed $35,000 by winning the tournament but missed out on picking up the $10,000 bonus that comes with scoring 300 in the televised finals. "The ball just hung up on my thumb a little bit, and I didn't clear it the way I wanted to, which in turn made it just a hair slower than the other (strikes).
      "Unfortunately, it went high. I was really lucky to leave just the 6-pin. I probably could have left more."
      Bohn admitted he was fortunate to be perfect heading into his 12th ball. A rocking 7-pin in the sixth frame fell after several nervous seconds, keeping the skein of strikes intact.
      "You need the breaks to go your way, and he had the breaks go his way," said Jaros, who lost 299-245. "Well, until that last ball, I guess."
      Bohn leaped in the air as he delivered that final ball, but when the six failed to drop, his knees buckled. Seconds later, he shrugged to the crowd, as if to say, "Oh, well."
      "It was disappointing, but it wasn't terrible," he said later. "A `six' hurt me in the semis, but a `six' won it for me in the final. It's a popular number today. Maybe I should go play it."
     
      Joe Hawk's column is published Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. He can be reached by e-mail at Joe_Hawk@lvrj.com.