AMF Mesa - 2/20/21

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Our event this weekend was at AMF Mesa lanes and we were making our return after a two and a half year absence.  We had 62 total entries (41 qualifying & 21 economy parlay) for 2 squads, with 20 prize winners and a 1 in 3.1 cash ratio.  We paid out over $3,200 in main and side event prize funds.  The players bowled on a pattern we don’t use often and it is a tough one to get used to. The PBA Badger, that’s 52 foot in length, which is the longest oil pattern used in competitive play and “hooking” your ball into the pocket isn’t really an option at the beginning. You have to get used to your ball fading back high flush until they start to break down a little bit.  Those that could avoid leaving a split and making their spares were able to advance.

We want to welcome Brenda Kalivianakis, Bobby Steele, Sandie Ironside, Maurice Sykes, Devin Mogk and Ken Hall to the SFT AHT family!  We hope you guys all had a good time in your first SFT AHT event.  Congrats to Bobby Steele on making his first quarterfinals in his first tournament.  Also congrats to our Parlay Power Players in Shawna Strause, Jennifer Peterson and Kyle Davis!!!  They all made the quarterfinals off their $25.00 parlay investment and turned it into a quarterfinals check!  Your winner of the free plastic bowling ball, with an option to upgrade to any Track high performance ball for $85.00, was Gilbert Archibeque!

Since this was a 2-squad event, the quarterfinals were not re-oiled before the quarterfinals.  The scores were up and down depending on which bowlers you were following with some bowlers having good games and then following it up with not so good game.  Those that were able to limit their mistakes were able to advance to the next round by picking up their spares.  Also since there were only 5 bowlers in each Division and the cut ratio for a semi-final was 1 in 3, we would cut to the top bowler in each Division for your Finals.

The bowlers would battle it out in the quarterfinals with your leader in the A Division being Ron Gonzales (+78).  In the B Division we would see Ken W. Davis (+91) advance to the Finals.  While in the C Division we would see Parlay Power Player Kyle Davis (+115) catch fire to punch his ticket to the Finals.

Going into the final match we had newcomer Kyle Davis looking to win his first title in his first title match.  Kyle had been bowling well all day and was looking to capitalize.  Ken W. Davis was looking to win his first AHT SFT title as well.  Ken had made the Finals twice before and was hoping the third time would be the charm.  They would both have to face off with reigning 2020 SFT Player of the Year, Ron Gonzales.  Ron was looking for his 9th AHT SFT title and to get himself back into the season points race.

The Final match would start off with each bowler trying to get lined up Kyle and Ron both leaving splits in the 2nd and 3rd frames, which they would not pick up.  Ken would jump out to a small lead early, but a missed 4-pin would bring him back to the pack.  After a couple splits Ron would strike in the 5th, 6th and 7th frames to get himself back into the match.  Kyle would also throw a three bagger to get a lead, but a nasty 4-7-10 split in the ninth would erase it.

Going into the tenth frame all three bowlers were within 10 pins of each other.  Ron would get up and double in the tenth and get 8 on his fill to finish at 229.  Ken would be next and would double and get 8 as well to finish at 224.  Kyle would need to double and get 3-pins on the fill to win the match by one.  Kyle would get up in the tenth and hit the pocket leaving a stunned tenth pin, which would fall down late.  On his second shot in the tenth he would again hit the pocket, but this time it was the seven pin wiggling and wobbling around to stay up leaving Kyle to finish at 227.  This would give Ron his ninth AHT SFT title and $675.00 first place prize!  Congrats to Kyle on 2nd place and also to Ken on 3rd place.

Thank you to everyone that came out to support the event!  We look forward to seeing everyone at our next event at AMF Union Hills next Sunday!  Hope you all have a great week!

FINALS - Ron Gonzales vs. Ken W. Davis vs. Kyle Davis