Bowlero Glendale - 5/31/21

Location: 

This weekend’s event was our 3-Day Memorial Day Major at Bowlero Glendale.  This is the first time that we have been to this center and we would see 284 total entries with 195 qualifying and 89 parlay entries this weekend.  It was good to see everyone come out to compete and have a good time.  We can’t thank the bowling community enough for all of the help in making this such a successful event.  We would draw entries from all over the Valley and state with some bowlers that even came down from Utah to bowl our event.

The event had 70 cashers, a 1 in 4 cash ratio and paid out over $21,000.00 in main and side event prize funds.  The players bowled on a 43ft Patriot oil pattern that proved to be playable but very tough when moving pair to pair. There were some bowlers that seemed to match up well for a game or two, but would get lost in transition and this would put a premium on spare shooting.  Bowlers had to be able to leave makeable spares and try to repeat shots.  The scores were pretty much on par with bowlers only needing to get 10 pins above average to make the cut.  The scores were a bit higher on Saturday for the B Division, but it seemed that with each strip and re-oil, the pattern played truer and truer and got harder and harder, with cut scores remaining about the same for all three days.

We had 17 new bowlers come out and try the event for the first time!  We would like to welcome Shawn Whitelaw, John Johnson, Albert Songco, Ronald Songco, Sheryl Paglier, Scott Morgan, Joe Gunn, Steve Lynn, Chris Stinson, Justin Sherman, Eli Johnson, Aaron Manuel Jr., Kenny Majors, Don Sparks, Eric Brown Jr., Danielle Whitlock, Louis Whitlock II and RJ Pointon to the SFT Family.  We hope you all have a good time and thank you all for coming out and trying out our event.  We hope to see you all soon at future events.  We also would like to congratulate this weekend’s Parlay Power Players in Danielle Whitlock, Steve Convirs, Josh Black, Gary Jenkins and Mike Umstead.  All of these bowlers made it to the quarterfinals off their $25 economy parlay entry and all had a chance to turn that into the $1,700 first place prize.

We would see three people win Momma’s Mystery Pot with only one of them winning the full $500 pot.  We had a few people that were not in the Momma’s pot that had their number drawn this weekend, so it pays to put in the extra $5.  Congrats to Kenny Koen who would win $500 with a 155 game on Sunday.  Also, congrats to Correen Acuff (163) and Kevin Dollar (182) who would both win in back-to-back squads on Monday for $90.00 each.  We also had our Memorial Day Mega Raffle, which featured more prizes than usual tournaments, and here are you mega raffle winners:

Free Track Ball of Choice

Adam Orlopp

Free Plastic Ball w/option to upgrade to Track Ball of Choice for $85.00

Tracy Lee

Ron Gonzales

Free Main Entry ($50 value)

Josh Molloy

Sean “The Man” Ashley

Free Progressive Pot ($25 value)

Josh Williams

Ken Nelson

Free Economy Parlay ($25 value)

Jason Stewie

Don Sparks

Free Strikeforce Towel

Jim Haines

Ron Gonzales

Timothy Satomba

 

The Quarterfinals was a big one with 52 bowlers on the floor.  The pattern was re-oiled before the start of the quarterfinals and it showed as the scores to advance past the quarterfinals would be just over average with the C Division needing a bit higher than the other Divisions to advance.

The cut ratio to advance from the quarterfinals into the Semi-Final round was 1 in 3.  So, with 17 bowlers in the A and C Divisions, they would be cutting to the Top 5 in each of the Divisions.  The B Division had 18 quarterfinalists so they would cut to the Top 6, but be broken up into 2 pairs of 3 bowlers for the 1st Semi-Final round.  In the A and C Divisions, all 5 bowlers would bowl one game with the Top 2 bowlers advancing into a 2nd Semi-Final match.  The B Division would see each pair bowl one game with the top bowler on that pair advancing to face the winner of the other pair in the 2nd round of the B Divisional Semi-Finals.  The B Division Semi-Final round would have the #1, #3 and #5 seeds on one pair and the #2, #4 and #6 seeds on the other pair.

In the A Division, your #1 seed was Michael Dragon (+54), #2 Matt Jones (+45), #3 Sean Casey (+38), #4 Brandon Loss (+35) and #5 seed was Michael Dewey (+23).  Your #1 seed had to the option to pick which lane the semi-final match was on and the choice of the order in which the bowlers would bowl the match.  The 1st semi-final match would be a close one with it coming down to the final frame.  Sean Casey would be your leader shooting 242 and Brandon Loss would close out with a 231 to set up your A Division Finals match.

In the B Division, we had #1 seed Jennifer Peterson (+96) vs. #3 seed Gary Jenkins (+70) vs. #5 seed Shelby Dempsey (+47). On the other pair we had #2 seed William Standefer (+71) vs. #4 seed Mathew Adragna (+52) vs. #6 seed Andre Murillo (+29).  On both pairs we would see upsets as Gary Jenkins would win his match with a 198 and Mathew Adragna would catch fire shooting a huge 242 game to move on to face each other in the B Division Finals match.

In the C Division, the #1 seed was Timothy Satomba (+96), #2 Jack Haines (+88), #3 Sandra Pennington (+74), #4 Ryan Doyle (+72) and #5 seed Josh Hancock (+59).  The C Division match would go back and forth with all five bowlers having a chance at advancing to the next round.  Jack Haines would be your leader with a 214 game while Sandra Pennington would pick up a clutch baby split, 3-10, spare to finish at 205 just edging out Ryan Doyle by 5 pins.

The Division Final matches are always fun to watch. When over 250+ entries come down to the top 6 bowlers, there is always some pressure in the atmosphere.  In the C Division Finals, Jack Haines would catch fire throwing a huge 239 game to defeat Sandra Pennington (193) and make it into the Championship match.  In the B Division, we had Mathew Adragna shooting a 220 game to get by Parlay Power Player Gary Jenkins, who would finish at 187.  The A Division Finals match would be a real nail biter as both bowlers would go back and forth throughout the match.  It would all come down to the tenth frame with Brandon Loss filling out the frame to finish the match at 194.  Sean had just opened in the ninth frame, so he needed to mark and get any count on the fill to get by Brandon.  Sean’s first shot in the tenth looked good, but hit a bit late leaving the 9-pin.  As a lefty Sean would hook at this spare attempt, but it would come off his hand a bit slow and would see the ball take off just missing in front of the 9-pin to finish at 193, giving Brandon the win by 1 pin.

The Final match at our Major events we use a different Finals format.  For this event we would use the Step Ladder Finals format. So, for the first match we would have the #2 seed vs. #3 seed face off in a one game match and the winner would face the #1 seed.  The advantage of being the #1 seed is that the bowler is already in the Final match with a guarantee of at least $1,000 and only having to bowl one match versus two matches.  Your #1 seed would be Jack Haines and he would watch as your #2 seed Mathew Adragna would take on #3 seed Brandon Loss.

The first Final match was a grind fest as both players struggled with the lanes with both of them opening and not being able to put anything together.  It would all come down to the tenth frame as Brandon would finish out the match with some timely spares at 189.  This would put pressure on Mathew to double in the tenth.  Mathew would get up and get a light mixer strike on his first shot.  On his second shot Mathew would calmly hit the pocket getting all the pins to fall and would punch out on the fill to win the match, 194 to 189.

We would take a quick break to give #1 seed Jack Haines a chance to practice on the pair.  There was a 24-pin difference between Jack (44 pins) and Mathew (20 pins).  Both Jack and Mathew were looking at winning their first title and the $1,700 first place prize.  This would be an interesting match as Jack had been in the Finals before losing a heartbreaking ninth, tenth frame roll off at Bowlero Mesa earlier this year.  Mathew Adragna is an up-and-coming bowler and had been bowling well all day, even winning this weekend’s 3-day MEGA sweeper with a 750 series for $300.00!

This match would start off with both bowlers working at trying to find a line on a very demanding oil pattern.  Jack would get a small lead with Mathew still struggling to find the right line to play.  Mathew would finally get lined up throwing a 3-bagger in the 7th, 8th and 9th frames to get back into the match and put some pressure on Jack going into the tenth frame.  Mathew would be up first in the tenth and his first shot sail a bit long, hitting the pocket late and would leave him with a 3-6-7 split.  Mathew would shoot his spare attempt at the hitting the 3-6 and almost sending the 3-pin into the 7-pin.  Mathew would finish with a score of 201 meaning Jack would need to just keep the ball on the lane.  Jack would fill out his tenth to finish at 237 giving him his 1st AHT SFT title and $1,700.00 first place prize!!  Congrats to Mathew Adragna on 2nd place and $1,000.00.  Also, congrats to Brandon Loss on 3rd place and $600.00!!

Thank you to everyone that came out to support the event this weekend!  Also, a BIG thank you to Alexis Atkin and the Bowlero Glendale staff for hosting our tournament and providing such great service all weekend!  Hope you all have a great week and see you next Sunday at Bowlero Kyrene for our standard 3-squad event!

 

FINAL MATCH #1 - #2 Mathew Adragna vs. #3 Brandon Loss

 

FINAL MATCH #2 - #1 Jack Haines vs. #2 Mathew Adragna