This weekend’s event was at AMF Mesa Lanes. It has been awhile since we have had an event at this center. The event drew 90 total entries (59 qualifying and 31 economy parlay), had 26 cashers, a 1 in 3.4 cash ratio and paid out over $4,200.00 in main and side event prize funds. The players bowled on a 35ft boardwalk oil pattern that played a lot harder than usual. This pattern can tend to be high scoring, because it allows some miss room to the right if the player is able to get far enough to the right. That did exist on some of the pairs here, but other pairs didn’t have it. So bowlers experienced a different look from pair to pair and lane to lane. The average cut scores for the weekend were around +30 even though it was a shorter easier pattern.
We also want to welcome some new bowlers to the SFT AHT Family from this weekend. Rodney Harris, Thomas Mallory, Daniel Marquez and Scott Cook all bowled in their first tournament this weekend! We hope you all enjoyed yourself, and we hope to see you again soon! We had some parlay power players in Douglas Poe, Logan Spencer and Marcus Boner. They all turned their $25 into a spot in the quarterfinals and a chance at the $900.00 first place prize. Unfortunately, they all came up short with Marcus making it the farthest by making it to the semi-finals. We also want to congratulate everyone who made it to their first quarterfinals or their first quarter finals in quite a while. Congrats to Cedrick Bell, Brian Roever, James Roethle Sr. and Ben Wacks!
The quarterfinalists bowled on the burned boardwalk oil pattern due to lane machine issues and the center unable to put down fresh oil. This made the lanes play tighter and speed sensitive since there wasn’t that much oil to begin with down the lanes. It seemed that every division semi-finalist led by a good margin and really had the lanes figured out. Based on this you would think that the all of the #1 seeds would win all of their matches, but match play is a whole different animal.
In the A Division it was #1 seed Cedrick Bell vs Jason Satterlee, in the B Division #1 seed Marcus Boner vs Brian Roever, and C division #1 seed Patrick Sheridan vs Dan Lanious. In the C division Dan Lanious was able to stay clean with only one open in the 6th frame and move on to the finals. Patrick did try to mount a comeback by striking in the 7th, 8th & 9th frames, but it was too little too late giving Dan the win 232 to 171. The B division match was also exciting as it all came down to the tenth frame. As the #1 seed Marcus started off his match with a few open frames, but was able to find a line and struck in the 8th and 9th frames. Brian was the opposite as he started off the match clean to build up a lead, but struggled with transition in the 7th, 8th and 9th frames. Going into the tenth frame both bowlers were neck and neck. Marcus was up first and threw a very good ball which struck. This gave him a small lead and he needed to fill out the tenth to put some pressure on Brian. His second shot in the tenth frame looked good off his hand, but hit a little high leaving a 7-10 split. This meant that Brian needed to fill out his tenth frame in order to move on the finals. Brian was able to do so by striking on his first ball and filling the frame giving him a 4 pin lead over Marcus, 195 to 191. The A division match wasn’t as exciting as the other two semi-final matches. Jason struggled with the left lane during the match while Cedrick was able to line up quickly to win his match, 224 to 179. Cedrick was the only #1 seed to advance to the finals giving him a chance to win in his first final match appearance.
Since the center had issues with the lane machine, the final match was played on the end pair which was the only pair of lanes that neither of the finalist bowled on in the semi-finals. This made the final match a real grind fest, with each of the finalists starting off the match very shaky. Cedrick struck in the first frame, but then had issues with carry. Brian had a few splits and Dan had issues with converting spares. Everyone was bowling poorly, through the first 5 frames, but they all were still alive in the match. By the time they got to the 9th frame they were all within ten pins of each other. It would all come down to the tenth frame and who wanted it most. Brian Roever would start off the tenth frame with a flat ten pin. He needed to mark to keep pressure on the other bowlers, but his spare attempt went a little wide and into the gutter leaving him with a 173. Dan Lanious, who has been bowling pretty good this summer, would need to fill out in his final frame. Dan’s first shot went a little high, but was able to trip out the 9-pin and finished up with a baby 3-10 split for a 178. Next up was Cedrick Bell, who had stayed clean for most of the match and even converted the 2-4-8-10 split earlier in the match. Cedrick was giving up 24 pins to Dan, so he needed to strike in the tenth. Cedrick was able to bury his first shot and able to stay clutch and finish out the tenth with all three strikes for a score of 192 and his first AHT SFT title & $900.00! Congrats to Dan Lanious for 2nd place and Brian Roever for 3rd place!
Thanks to everyone for coming out this weekend to support the event. We look forward to seeing you next Sunday at Brunswick Kyrene! Have a great week and hope to see you all there!
