Our event this weekend was out in the West Valley as we would have an early bird 2-squad tournament at Bowlero Avondale. It's been a quite a few years since we have been here and we were lucky to be able to come back as the center has been recently renovated, which turned out great. We would see a total of 99 entries today (73 qualifying and 26 parlays) with a cash ratio of 1 in 3.41, paying out over $6,600.00 in main and side event prize funds. The bowlers played on the 39ft 2021 USBC Nationals Singles & Doubles oil pattern. The pattern played a bit tricky as you moved pair to pair. Also, there was a slight out of bounds if you got your ball just outside of the five board. Because the pattern was not very long or short, it allowed players to attack it from all angles. The cut scores were pretty low after the first squad, but as the pattern started to break down in the second squad the cut scores would see a slight increase with bowlers only needing to bowl about five to ten pins over their average to advance to the quarterfinal round. The main key, like at any USBC National's event, was to make your spares!
We would like to welcome Ashton Edge, Brandon Graff, Benedict Bauer, Amber Burning, Luke Mahon, Eddie Pulido, and Brenda Overton to the SFT family. We hope that you all had an enjoyable time and hope to see you again. We also had some Parlay Power Players in Brandon Loss and Lordan Ferguson! They both made it to the quarterfinals off their $30.00 Economy Parlay entry! We also want to congratulate Jesse Koneke and for making his first quarterfinals or their first quarterfinals in quite a while. We would see not one but two Momma’s Mystery Pot winners with Jon Taylor and Justin Surat splitting a $500.00 pot, with a score of 165, for $250.00 each! Your winner of the free plastic ball raffle, with an option to upgrade to any Track high performance ball for $95.00, was Lenny Grom.
Since this event was only two squads, there was no re-oil before the quarterfinals. This resulted in some medium to high scores with the standings being pretty tight. It would all come down to the third and final game of the quarterfinals to determine our semi-finalists. We would have 21 quarterfinalists and with our 1 in 3 cut ratio from the quarterfinals to the semi-final round, we would cut to the Top 2 in all three Divisions.
The A Division would see Zach Van Dusen (+71) emerge as your #1 seed and he would have to face off with Aaron Mendoza (+45). The B Division would have Payton Steele (+143) as the #1 seed overall, and he would take on Scott Sparks (+80). The C Division would see #1 seed Charles Nault (+94) versus Mike Rhoads (+78).
The A Division semi-final match would start off as a close one between Zach Van Dusen and Aaron Mendoza. About midway through the match Zach would get lined up and start pulling away while Aaron would struggle with fatigue. It would come down the tenth frame as Zach would double up with a strike in the ninth and tenth frames to pull away from Aaron and would win the match 239 to 190.
The B Division would start off with Scott striking while Payton was still looking to get lined up. Payton would start to comeback as Scott would lose his carry halfway through the match. Scott would open in the eighth frame to give Payton a chance to take a lead, but Payton would return the favor as he would open in the ninth frame. Scott would strike in the ninth and fill out the tenth to finish with a score of 209. Payton would finish up the tenth frame by getting a double and nine on the fill but it was too little too late as he would finish the match with a score of 201.
The C Division semi-final would be a nail biter between Charles Nault and Mike Rhoads. Charles would start off the match on fire as he would take an early lead. Charles would hit a bit of transition halfway through the match while Mike would finally get lined up and get a few timely strikes to claw his way back into the match. Charles would open in the tenth for a score of 221, which would leave the door open for Mike. Mike was coming off a double in the eighth and ninth frames and needed to strike out to win the match. Mike’s first ball in the tenth would leave the nine-pin, which he would spare, and he would fill out the frame to finish with a score of 190.
The Finals would see Charles Nault making his very first Finals and looking to win his first title. Charles has been working very hard on his game and all that hard work was starting to pay off. Scott Sparks was looking to win his second title. Scott won his first title back at AMF Peoria a few years ago, and then took some time off as he started his family, so it was good to see him make the Finals after such a long time off. The favorite of the three bowlers had to be Zach Van Dusen as he was looking to win his second title this season and also looking to move up in the 2024 AHT SFT Player of the Year points race, where he was currently sitting in fifth place.
The Finals would start off with Scott and Zach throwing strikes while Charles would open as he would chop the 1-2-4. Charles would start off the second frame with the 6-7 split as he would struggle with the pair. Scott would be up next and see his ball just sail past the head pin to the right and leave the 1-10 split. Scott would almost pick it up but the headpin would just miss the ten pin. Scott would get up on the left lane and again see his ball go long and leave the 2-4-8-10, but this time he would make the split conversion. Zach would get up for his second frame and leave the 3-pin, which he would spare. Third frame for Zach would see his ball hit light leaving the 3-7-9, which he wouldn’t convert. Charles would get up on the right lane and get a much-needed strike. Charles would move to the left lane for his fifth frame and again leave the 6-7 split, which he was unable to spare. Scott would be up on the right lane and looked to move a bit to the right and would see his ball hit the pocket light for a 4-pin, which he would spare. Scott would move to the left lane for his fifth frame and ace his shot for a strike. Zach would be up on the left lane and would crush the pocket for a strike. Zach’s fifth frame would see him double up with another strike as he looked to take a slight lead.
Midway through the match and it was pretty much even between all three bowlers. Charles would start off the sixth frame seeing his ball go too long leaving the 1-2-4-8, which he would pick up. On the left lane Charles would see his ball read the lane for a strike. Scott would strike on the right lane for his sixth frame as it looked like all three bowlers had finally gotten lined up. Scott’s seventh frame would see him strike for a 3-bagger. Zach’s sixth frame would see him strike to keep pace with Scott. Seventh frame for Zach would see him continue to string strikes for a hambone (4-bagger). Charles looked to make a ball change and would see his ball take off and leave the 1-3-6, which he would miss the spare for an open frame. Charles’ eighth frame would see his ball hit high through the nose and leave the 5-pin, which he would not convert for another open frame. Scott would continue to put pressure on Zach as he would strike for his own 4-bagger in the eighth. Scott’s ninth frame would see his ball hit the pocket high but he had just enough revs on it to trip out the four-pin late to keep his string of strikes going. Zach would miss a bit inside on his eighth frame and see his ball leave the 2-4-7, and unfortunately chop the spare for an open frame. Zach would strike in the ninth to set up his tenth frame as he hoped Scott would give him a chance in the tenth.
Charles would finish up the match with a score of 182 for third place. Scott would be up next and would finish out the match with a ten-pin spare, and the pocket 7-10 to finish out the match with a score of 257. Zach would finish up the match with a nine-spare and five for a score of 217. This would give Scott Sparks his second AHT SFT title and the $1,100.00 first place prize! Congrats to Zach Van Dusen on second place for $600.00 and also congrats to Charles Nault on third place for $350.00!
Thank you to everyone that came out and bowled this weekend’s tournament. Also thank you to Heather Gomez and the staff at Bowlero Avondale for hosting us and providing us with great customer service. We can’t wait to return back here sooner than later. Another big thank you to Michael Dragon for working the event and keeping everything running smooth this weekend. We will be back next Sunday for another 2-squad tournament at AMF Mesa!
Hope you all have a great week and see you soon!
Bowlero Avondale Finals - Zach Van Dusen vs. Scott Sparks vs. Charles Nault
