Jeremy Becker stands in front of lanes 4 and 5 at Jamestown Bowling Company earlier this week. The 23-year-old Jamestown resident rolled a 300 game on those lanes a week ago today, just 48 hours after his father passed away. P-J photo by Scott Kindberg

Jeremy Becker walked into the arcade area at Jamestown Bowling Company earlier this week and pulled out his bowling ball that he had stored there.

“This is ‘Old Reliable,’ he said. “I’ve had it since 2014. It fits my game perfectly.”

Never more so than last Thursday night.

For it was on lanes 4 and 5 at the Foote Avenue establishment on the city’s southside that Jeremy, 23, recorded his fourth career 300 game, and his second in four months.

But this 12-strike performance meant more than the previous perfect games ever did.

A lot more.

“I was nervous,” Jeremy admitted. “I knew the gravity of the situation. All I remember is taking a lot of deep breaths in the final frame. Before I threw the final shot, I stood there an extra second, looked at my bowling ball (and thought), “Mom, Dad, can you help me on this one here? Because I’m nervous.”

Then he took his approach and let the ball go … one final time.

It was in memory of his father, Jeff, who died of an apparent heart attack 48 hours earlier at his home in Florida.

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Jeremy bowls three nights a week — in the Lena’s Pizza Men’s League on Wednesday and the Classic Doubles League on Thursday at JBC; and in the Falconer Businessman’s League at State Lanes in Falconer.

When he’s not bowling, he’s working several different gigs, including public-address announcing jobs with the Jamestown Tarp Skunks and the Jamestown Rebels; serving as a producer for Western New York Athletics; and assisting with the livestream for the Jamestown Jackals. He also is in charge of the junior bowling program at JBC where he works the front counter and will monitor the machines in the back of the lanes.

“He’s a good kid,” said JBC proprietor Jim Mee.

So it was no surprise then that Jeremy had many of his friends and fellow bowlers in the Classic Doubles League rooting for him as he prepared to take his final shot a week ago today.

“It was a little high,” said Jeremy, a lefty. “It was more directly on the head pin than it was in the pocket. I would have loved for it to be flush in the pocket, (but) the 6-pin, which is kiddie-corner to the 10-pin, slid over a little bit before it started falling. The head pin ricocheted and hit the wall and he butt end of the head pin just touched the 6-pin enough.

“My doubles partner (Scott Nelson) said it fell pretty quick, but for me it was 30 seconds.”

Realizing what he’d accomplished, Jeremy pointed toward the ceiling and dropped to one knee, his head bowed.

“At first it was the satisfaction that I shot 300,” Jeremy said, “but I couldn’t help but think about my dad. I started crying. I lost it.”

After exchanging a hug with another bowler, he saw a “huge line” of people waiting to congratulate him.

“It was unbelievable, to say the least,” Mee said. “At first, he wanted to bowl an 800 series, because he’s never had one and he wanted to dedicate it to his dad, and he ended up shooting a 300. He’s had other 300s, but it’s a major accomplishment with all he’s got on his mind.”

It’s not the first time Becker and his older brother, Andrew, have suffered unimaginable loss.

Last June, their mother, Wendy, died of cancer. She was 59.

“I’m handling it the best I can,” Becker said. “I’ve been trying to keep busy so I don’t have to think about the fact I’m about to go down to Florida next week (with Andrew and other family members) and clear out my parents’ double-wide trailer.”

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April 9 would have been Jeff Becker’s 61st birthday.

To honor his memory and their shared love of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League, Jeremy will be at PPG Paints Arena that day for the Pens’ game against Washington.

Tickets are being made available, courtesy of Steve Mears, the team’s television play-by-play voice on AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh.

Jeremy said Jamestown Rebels manager Jason Rent had told Mears about his father’s death.

Jeremy is hoping that Pens defenseman Kris Letang scores a goal that day.

Letang was Jeff Becker’s favorite player.

Until then, Jeremy will continue to stay busy with his various jobs — he was part of WNY Athletics’ broadcast team at the Section VI bowling championships on Wednesday in Buffalo — while never allowing the memory of his parents to be far away.

“If you’ve lost one parent and you have a rocky relationship with the other, start building because you don’t know how much time is left,” Jeremy advised. “I tell my friends that I would trade every single cent of inheritance to have my parents back with me right now. I would trade every single paycheck just to have them back.”