This weekend was our very final event of the 2023 season. We had our Match Play Invitational at Bowlero Kyrene. The top 24 bowlers in total season points, except the Player of the Year, 2nd and 3rd place bowlers were invited to bowl this event. We would be bowling on the 2017 PWBA Wichita Open oil pattern which would prove to be a bit difficult. The bowlers were competing to win SFT event exemptions as the winner of this event would win 2 exemptions and 2nd place would receive 1 exemption for the upcoming season. Event exemptions allow the bowler to automatically be placed into the quarterfinals of any regular SFT season event without having to qualify. This means that the bowlers would automatically take home the minimum $100.00 last place and could possibly win up to over $1,000.00 for free depending on the event they used their exemption on.
We would start check in early and like in previous years we would go down the season points list trying to fill our 24-player bracket. The #24 seed of this event would be Taylor Comon, who would get in after being at #127 on the season points list. So just remember that if you are not in the Top 24 then you still have a chance at bowling the event. Your Top 4 seeded bowlers would receive a three-round bye, while your next #5-8 seeded bowlers would get a two-round bye. This would be advantageous as it would allow you to get further in the bracket without bowling as many games.
We would see a few bowlers that would lose their first match by upset with the lower seed bowlers winning their match. Since this tournament is a double elimination format, then the bowlers would still have a chance to make the Finals, but it would be a real uphill climb. A couple of the lower seeded bowlers would try to make a run in the Winner’s bracket but would run into some trouble as the day went on.
On the Winner’s side of the tournament bracket, we would see Darwin Hicks go on a run by winning all his matches. Darwin would go on to defeat Kenny Koen, 222 to 209, to send him down to await the Loser’s bracket winner. The Top 8 bowlers would finish out their matches in the Loser’s bracket. We would see Michael LePage lose to a red-hot Lan Macy, 204 to 189, while Thomas “Buddy” Darnell would defeat Outhay Lalab, 189 to 175. Michael and Outhay would finish in the 7th/8th place for the tournament for $60.00 each!
Garret Strehl would be up next to take on Lan Macy. Garret would struggle on the pair and we would see Lan do just enough to win the match and eliminate Garret, 200 to 162. In the other match it would be SFT Senior Player of the Year Ron Gonzales facing off against Buddy Darnell. They would have a very close match with Ron being able to get enough pins to take down Buddy, 201 to 178. Garret and Buddy would finish in the 5th/6th place for $70.00 each
We would see Lan Macy and Ron Gonzales face off with the winner having to bowl against Kenny to determine who would face off with Darwin in the Finals. The match between Lan and Ron would see Ron struggle with the pair and Lan would continue to string timely strikes as she would continue her run by winning the match, 239 to 159. Ron would finish up in 4th place for $100.00.
This would set up a rematch from earlier in the bracket as Lan was narrowly defeated by Kenny for her only lost by 1 pin, 211 to 210. Kenny was determined to put this match to bed early as he would start off on fire on the lanes by stringing the first four strikes in a row. Lan would not be able to keep up and as it looked like the number of games (#9) was finally catching up to her. Kenny would continue to stay clean and would put up a huge game and win the match, 265 to 186. Lan would finish up in 3rd place for $110.00.
This would set up Kenny to meet Darwin in the Championship match. With this being a double elimination tournament, Kenny would have to defeat Darwin twice in a row to win the event. Their match would start off with both bowlers struggling with the pair. Kenny would put together some strikes to win the match, 238 to 188, and push the Championship match to a 2nd game. Darwin would look to rebound and make this a match but he just did not have a good look on the pair. Kenny would continue to strike and would not let up and go on to defeat Darwin, 235 to 181, to win the 2023 Match Play Invitational and 2 exemptions for the 2024 season. Congrats to Darwin Hicks on 2nd place and 1 exemption for next season!
I just want to say thank you to everyone that has come to support our events this season. Also, a big thank you to Tawna McDonald, Michael Dragon, Hokey Begay, and Tyler Andersen for helping out this season as we could not run our events without all their help. We had 23 tournaments this season and look forward to continuing our success for the 2024 season.
Wish you all a Happy Holidays and we hope to see you as we kick off the 2024 season at AMF McRay on Sunday, January 7th!
