AMF McRay - 7/24/2022

Location: 

Our event this weekend was at AMF McRay, and we would have a great turnout. We would have 141 total entries (95 qualifying and 46 economy parlays) with 37 cashers, a 1 in 3.91 cash ratio and paid out over $9,700.00 in main and side event prize funds. The players bowled on the 40ft Kegel Highway to Hell oil pattern that played pretty tough for most of the day. There were some higher scores, but bowlers were able to play a variety of angles on this pattern. The key was to leave makeable spares and stay close to even for most of the games. The cut scores stayed around +30 for most of the day, which meant that you had to bowl about just a bit over your average each game to qualify.

We had some new bowlers join us for their first event this weekend. We would like to welcome Eric Daniels, Corey Turrentine, Christopher Sandberg, Mike Deutsch, Takayo Lawrence, Pete Ciancio, Albert Gonzalez, and Martin Donnelly to the SFT family. We hope you all had a good time and look forward to seeing you at our next event.  We had a few Parlay Power Players this weekend in Eddie Thompson, Christopher Sandberg, and Nieko McCullough, who all would make it to the quarterfinals off their $30.00 economy parlay entry. Congrats to Chris Allen, Michael Dominick, Christopher Sandberg, and Cayden Matherly for making it to the quarterfinals for the first time or their first time in quite a while. Christopher Sandberg was even able to make the quarterfinals in his first ever event! Also, congrats to Ron McDonald for winning Momma’s Mystery Pot, with a score of 145, for $500.00! We had another bowler that also had a score of 145 but was not in the Momma’s Mystery Pot or they would have split the pot in half. Your winner of the free plastic ball raffle, with an option to upgrade to any Track high performance bowling ball for $85.00, was Steve Convirs.

Since this event was only 2 squads there would be no re-oil before the quarterfinals. This resulted in some lower scores and the standings were very tight as bowlers needed to bowl at least their average with one or two good games to make the cut. We had 27 quarterfinalists and with our 1 in 3 cut ratio, from the quarterfinals to the semi-final round, we would cut to the Top 3 bowlers in all three Divisions.

The A Division would have Chris Silva (+107) emerge as the #1 seed and he would have to take on Brian Waugh (+94) and Carlos Vejar (+53). The B Division had Eddie Wilcox (+58) as the #1 seed, and he would face off with Brian Richardson (+39) and current SFT Player of the Year Ron Gonzales (+18). The C Division had James Strang III (+77) as its #1 seed and he would go up against Cayden Matherly (+63) and Ted McKay (+51).

The A Division semi-final match would be a pretty good match as Brian Waugh would start off with a lead but would lose his look later in the match. Carlos would struggle to get lined up and would finish the match in third place with a score of 200. Chris Silva would get a late double in the ninth and tenth frames to finish at 249. This would mean that Brian Waugh would need to strike out to win the match. Brian just could not buy a strike as he would get nine-spare in the ninth and then get 8 in the tenth. Brian would miss the spare to finish at 210 and give the win to Chris.

The B Division semi-final match would see Brian Richardson catch fire and runaway with the match with a huge score of 250. Ron Gonzales would finish in second place with a score of 202 and Eddie would come in third at 188.

The C Division semi-final match would be a really close match and it would all come down to the ninth and tenth frames. Cayden would finish first as he would go nine-spare in the ninth and then would fill out the tenth to finish with a score of 222. Ted McKay would open in the ninth frame and would go on to get a nine-spare and get seven on his fill to finish at 224. Next, we would have James Strang III finish the match as he would chop a spare in the ninth and in the tenth, he would go nine-spare and strike to finish at 230 to punch his ticket to the Finals.

Going into the Finals we would see Chris Silva and James Strang III looking to win their first AHT SFT title in their first title match. Brian Richardson was looking to get his hands on his fourth title and that $1,400 first place prize.

The Finals would start off looking like it would be a shoot out as Brian and Chris would start off with strikes. James would look to get lined up as he would convert the baby split (3-10) in the first and then crossing over for a Brooklyn strike in the second frame. Brian would strike in the second frame and then it would all be downhill from there as he would not get another strike throughout the rest of the match. Chris looked like he got things figured out as he would leave a four-pin in the second frame but would go on to double in the third and fourth frames to cut into James’s handicap lead. James would open in the third as he was unable to convert the 4-9 split and would go eight-spare in the fourth to keep a small lead.

As we would get halfway through the match it looked like it was going to be a close one. James would strike in the fifth and would catch fire as he would put together a four-bagger in the sixth, seventh and eighth frames to put himself ahead of Chris and Brian. Even an open in the ninth was not enough to give Chris or Brian a chance to catch up. Brian would finish with a score of 183 for third place. Chris could not string any strikes together but would finish with a score of 208 for second place. James would double in the tenth to finish with a score of 273 to win his first AHT SFT title and $1,400.00!

Thank you to everyone that came out this weekend for our tournament. It was great to see so many bowlers out considering other tournaments going on throughout the Valley. We will be back next Sunday at AMF Union Hills for another 2-squad standard tournament.

We hope to see you all there and have a great week!!!

AMF McRay FINALS - Chris Silva vs. Brian Richardson vs. James Strang III