AMF Chandler Lanes - 12/11/21

This weekend was our very final event of the 2021 season.  We had our Match Play Invitational at AMF Chandler Lanes.  The top 24 bowlers in total season points, except the Player of the Year, 2nd and 3rd place bowlers were invited to bowl this event.  These bowlers were all trying to win an event exemption for the upcoming 2021 season.  The winner of this event would win 2 exemptions and 2nd place would receive 1 exemption for the upcoming 2022 season.

We would take check in and like in previous years we would go down the season points list trying to fill our brackets.  The #24 seed of this event would be Justin Surat, who had just recently started to bowl our events in the last month, and he would get in after being at #163 on the season points list.  So just remember that if you are not in the Top 24 then you still have a chance at bowling the event.  Your Top 4 seeded bowlers would receive a three-round bye, while your next #5-8 seeded bowlers would get a two-round bye.  This would be advantageous as it would allow you to get further in the bracket without bowling as many games.

We would see a few bowlers that would lose their first match by upset with the lower seed bowlers winning their match.  Since this tournament is a double elimination format, then the bowlers would still have a chance to make the Finals, but it would be a real uphill climb.  A couple of the lower seeded bowlers would try to make a run in the Winner’s bracket, but would run into some trouble as the day went on.

On the Winner’s side of the tournament bracket, we would see Bryton Bobbitt go on a run by winning all his matches.  Bryton would go on to defeat Eric Flick, 231 to 214, to send him down to await the Loser’s bracket winner.  Top 8 bowlers would finish out their matches in the Loser’s bracket.  We would see David Corcino lose to red-hot Eddie Wilcox, 249 to 206, while Brandon Loss would defeat Outhay Lalab, 221 to 193.  David and Outhay would finish in the 7th/8th place for the tournament for $60.00!

Brandon Loss would face off with Nicholas Tejada in a rematch from earlier in the Winner’s bracket where Nicholas went off on Brandon, so Brandon was looking to redeem himself.  The match would go back and for but Nicholas would struggle on the pair as Brandon would win the match, 209 to 171.  In the other match it would be Eddie Wilcox against Ken W. Davis.  They would have a very close match with Eddie taking down Ken, 209 to 197.  Nicholas and Ken would finish in the 5th/6th place for $70.00.

We would see Brandon Loss and Eddie Wilcox face off with the winner having to meet up with Eric Flick to determine who would face off with Bryton in the Finals.  Brandon and Eddie would have a close match with it coming down the ninth/tenth frame.  Eddie would need to strike out to put some pressure on Brandon, but would go high on his first shot to leave the 3-6-10, which he would convert.  Eddie would fill out the tenth to finish at 203.  Brandon would get up needing only a mark to win and would do more than that by crushing the pocket for a double and nine to win with a score of 227.  Eddie Wilcox would finish up in 4th place for $100.00.  Brandon would then face off with Eric Flick and their match would see Brandon catch fire.  Brandon would string some strikes to defeat Eric, 245 to 183.  Eric would finish up in 3rd place for $110.00.

This would set up Brandon to meet Bryton in the Championship match.  With this being a double elimination tournament, Brandon would have to defeat Bryton twice in a row to win the event.  Their match would start off with both bowlers struggling with the pair.  Brandon would get enough marks to win the match, 221 to 154, and push the Championship match to a 2nd game.  Bryton would make a ball change and it looked like it would be the right decision as he would come back to win the 2nd match, 191 to 173, to win the 2021 Match Play Invitational and 2 exemptions for the 2022 season.  Congrats to Brandon Loss on 2nd place and 1 exemption for next season!

Sorry I forgot to record the Finals for this event!

I just want to say thank you to everyone that has come to support our events this season.  Also, a big thank you to Tawna McDonald for helping run our events this year.  We had 35 tournaments this season and I don’t know if we could do them all without her.  Also thank to our sponsors for the 2021 season, Track Bowling and Chuck’s Painting!

Wish you all a Happy Holidays and we hope to see you next season!!!