Sorrentino dominates for East Islip girls

It was three years ago that Lena Sorrentino was the one applying the stickers, not the one earning them.

As a seventh-grader on East Islip's state championship team in 2008, Sorrentino and her fellow alternates were responsible for giving their teammates a sticker whenever they got a strike, in what became an annual county championship ritual.

The tradition carried on Saturday during the Suffolk County championships at Sayville Lanes, as sheets of paper designated for each East Islip bowler became covered in stickers at a record-breaking pace.

East Islip clinched a trip to the state tournament in Syracuse next month by finishing with a six-game total pinfall of 6,482 for an astounding 723-pin victory, the largest margin of victory in county history, according to East Islip coach Harold Cooley. Sorrentino - who swept the high game, series and average categories in the tournament - rolled a 275 in Game 2 of a 758 series, both season highs, and a 689 in the second series for a 241.2 average, more than 30 pins above her season average.

"It feels really good to win as a team and not just have to go up with the all-stars because we can go up as a family now," Sorrentino said. "We will just get closer and stronger together . . . I didn't expect to bowl that good. I'm really happy and surprised."

Tara Ernst, East Islip's lone senior, closed out her final match on Long Island with five straight strikes for a 248 game to finish with the second-highest average in the tournament at 220.8, 16 pins above her season average. Kelsey Fryer averaged 207.3 and Nancy Baione 206.33 as the Redmen finished with four of the top seven averages in the county championship.

"We came in here and just did what we had to do," Ernst said. "Every game, we just took it as a new game, not knowing what we did last game."

SEE PHOTOSSuffolk and Nassau bowling championships

After a 1,148 series in the second game, East Islip opened a 217-pin lead that swelled from there. Coming in second place was Patchogue-Medford (5,749), led by Jessica Calandra (214.8 average) and Zulfiye Bademci (211.5), with third going to Commack (5,707), behind Renee Rocco (208.5).

"This year, all four of my big four girls all shot over their averages here," Cooley said. "That's really what it takes, you need to have somebody come up big . . . We had two girls that came up really big today and four girls that bowled super all day."

They have a county title, and the stickers, to prove it.