Our event this weekend was at Bowlero Kyrene and it was our first tournament back after a two-week break. We had a huge turnout with 161 entries (106 qualifying and 55 economy parlays) with 39 cashers, a 1 in 4.12 cash ratio and paid out over $9,000.00 in main and side event prize funds. Our first squad of the day had a record 69 bowlers, which is amazing to see! The players bowled on the 42ft PBA Scorpion oil pattern that played pretty tough for most of the day but the lanes would open up later in the day. There were some higher scores but for most of the day bowlers were able to play a variety of angles on the pattern. The cut scores stayed around +60 for most of the day, which meant that you had to bowl about 10-15 pins over your average per game to qualify.
We had quite a few new bowlers that would join us for their first event. We want to welcome Sterling Ventura, Cayden Matherly, Karla Fila, Rebecca Detwiler, Jack Saron, Destin Jonovich, Antoni “Tiny” Card, Carl Stafford, Jr., Scott Sandy, Richard Armstrong, Matt Blevins, Andrew Lewis, Carter O’Neal and Ryan John who all bowled in their first event this weekend. We hope you all had a good time and look forward to seeing you at our next event. Congrats to Carter O’Neal who all made it to the quarterfinals in his very first event! Also, congrats to Garret Strehl, Thomas Stead, Jason Lowery, Curtis Spence, Nicholas Tejada and Eddie Wilcox for being this weekend’s Parlay Power Players. All these bowlers were able to qualify for the quarterfinals off their $25 parlay investment. Also, congrats to Shane Smith, Carter O’Neal, Jason Lowry, Larry Schwarzberg, Roy Gross, Rene Villa and Rick Passey for making their first quarterfinals or their first quarterfinals in quite a while. Congrats to Chris Strehl for winning Momma’s Mystery Pot, with a score of 224, for $500.00!! Your winner of the free plastic ball raffle, with an option to upgrade to any Track high-performance ball for $85.00, was Mike Hodge.
The quarterfinals would be bowled on the fresh oil pattern and the scores showed as we would see lower scores more in line with the 1st squad of the tournament. Picking up spares was the key to advancing to the Semi-Final round, with those that could limit mistakes and leave makeable spares being able to separate from the pack. With the bigger turnout, we would cut to the Top 3 in each Division for a one game match with handicap and the winner moving on the Finals against the other Division winners.
Your A Division leader would be Garret Strehl (+136) and he would have to face off against Thomas Stead (+37) and Josh Williams (+12). In the B Division your overall #1 seed would be Bryton Bobbitt (+68) and he would take on newcomer Carter O’Neal (+36) and we would have a tie for the third spot between Chris Tucker (+20) and Jason Lowery (+20). The C Division would see youth bowler Ryan Doyle (+68) emerge as your #1 seed and he would be matched up against Roy Gross (+37) and we would have another tie with Nicholas Tejada (+23) and Rene Villa (+23). We would have not one, but two ninth and tenth frame roll-offs to find out who would make it to the Semi-Final round in the B and C Divisions.
The B Division roll-off would start with Chris Tucker striking in his ninth frame. Jason Lowery would get up and also strike in his ninth frame. Jason would throw his first shot in the tenth just a bit wide and his ball would come back late just missing the pocket leaving the 1-2-6-10. His spare attempt would just miss the head pin taking out the 6-10 to finish at 28. Chris would calmly get up and throw his first shot, which went a bit high, leaving the 6-pin. He would pick up his spare and get nine on the fill to win the roll off and get into the Division Semi-Finals.
Next up we would have the C Division roll-off with Nick Tejada and Rene Villa. Rene would start off getting his ball too far outside and it wouldn’t hold on and go into the gutter. He would get nine on his spare attempt to put himself into a hole. Nick would strike in his ninth frame and go a bit high on his first shot in the tenth leaving the 6-pin. He would pick up his spare and get 8 on the fill to finish at 40.75. Rene would need all three strikes in the tenth to win the match by a faction of a pin since the handicap is pro-rated for the roll-off and the decimal plays. Rene’s first shot in the tenth would look good off his hand, but take off and high the pocket high leaving the 6-10. He would pick up the spare and get 8 on the fill to finish at 29.66.
The A Division semi-final match would go back and forth with each bowler struggling to string strikes early in the match. Thomas Stead would take an early lead as he would triple in the 3rd, 4th and 5th frames, but an open in the sixth would give Josh and Garret a chance to catch back up. Garret would struggle for most of the match and finish up in third at 167. Thomas Stead would get back on track, but a costly split in the ninth would see him finish at 191. Josh Williams would get some timely strikes and he would stay clean for most of the match to win with a 208 and punch his ticket into the Finals.
The C Division Semi-Final match would see Nick Tejada stay hot after the roll-off to win the match. Both Ryan Doyle and Roy Gross would struggle with the lanes while Nick would take advantage by picking up some key strikes throughout the match. Ryan would punch out in the tenth to try and put some pressure on Nick, but Nick would double in the tenth to finish at 236. Ryan would come in second at 204 and Roy would finish up in third at 190.
The B Division Semi-Final would be a nail biter with it all coming down to the tenth frame. Carter O’Neal would struggle with the pair and finish up in third with a score of 172. Bryton Bobbitt would finish up the tenth frame getting 8-spare and getting 8 on his fill shot to finish at 223. Chris Tucker was coming into the tenth on a double in the eighth and ninth frames. Chris would need to strike on the first shot in the tenth and seven-spare on the fill to win the match. Chris’ first shot in the tenth would absolutely crush the pocket and leave a stone 9-pin, which was pretty unbelievable. Chris would pick up his spare and strike on the fill to finish at 216, giving Bryton the win.
The Final match would feature 2021 AHT SFT Player of the Year runner-up, Josh Williams, looking to add his third title in his young career. Josh had used one of his exemptions to get into the quarterfinals and was able to take advantage of it. Exemptions are a prize that are awarded to the Top 4 bowlers in the overall season points race and also the Match Play Invitational that is held at the end of the season. The exemption allows for a bowler to be placed directly into the quarterfinals without having to qualify for the event. Overall Player of the Year is awarded 20 exemptions that they can use throughout the season and you can always check out our rules on our website for more information. Bryton had been to the Finals three times before and was looking at riding his momentum from the semi-finals to get his hands on his first title. Nick Tejada was looking at riding his $25 economy parlay entry all the way into his first title and $1,500.00 first place prize.
The Final match would start off with all three bowlers struggling to get lined up on the pair. Nick would open leaving a washout and Josh would pick up a huge spare 4-7-10 split to take an early lead. Bryton would dig himself into a huge hole by missing a few spares early. Nick and Josh would go back and forth as Josh was looking to make up some of the handicap difference. Halfway through the match and it was still close as Josh and Nick would open in the fifth while Bryton continued to struggle with the pair. Nick would get hot throwing a 3-bagger to get out to a lead that he would never give up. Josh would try to catch up, but couldn’t string enough strikes together. Nick would finish up at 228 to give himself his first AHT SFT title and the huge $1,500.00 first place prize. Josh would come in 2nd at 202 and Bryton would finish up in third place at 149.
Thank you to everyone that came out and supported the event this weekend. It was great to see us fill up a 40-lane house with our first squad of the day. We hope to see you all next Sunday at Bowlero Mesa and also don’t forget about our 3-Day Labor Day Major at Bowlero Via Linda in two weeks!! Hope you all have a great day!
FINALS - Josh Williams vs. Bryton Bobbitt vs. Nick Tejada
