Bowlero Via Linda - 11/28/21

Our event this weekend was at Bowlero Via Linda and we had a pretty good turnout!  We had 89 total entries (64 qualifying and 25 economy parlays), 27 total cashers, and a 1 in 3.29 cash ratio and paid out over $4,700.00 in main and side event prize funds.  Players bowled on the 48ft PBA Shark oil pattern.  This house is usually one of the higher scoring houses due to a lot of friction on the lanes and we did see some higher scoring as the day went on.  The thing with a longer oil pattern is that you tend to leave a lot of single pin spares as bowlers are not able to carry the pocket.  So, picking up spares was a key to doing well.

As always, we want to welcome our first-time bowlers to the SFT AHT family!  Welcome Carie Morgan, Jacob Vasquez and William Bolling to our bowling family!  We hope you had a good time at your first event and we look forward to seeing you at the next one!  Congrats to Eric Matthews and Eddie Castellano on advancing to their first quarterfinals or first one in a while!  Also, congrats to Richard Kasting, Jr., Willy Vuong and Eddie Castellano on being this weekend’s Parlay Power players.  All three were able to advance to the quarterfinals through their $25 economy parlay entry!  We didn’t have anyone win the Momma’s Mystery Pot this weekend.  We had two bowlers that could’ve won, but unfortunately, they were not in, so the pot rolls over to next weekend.  Your winner of the free Track plastic ball raffle, with an option to upgrade to any Track High Performance ball for $85.00, was Ted McKay.

Since this event was only 2 squads there would be no re-oil before the quarterfinals.  This resulted in some low scores with the standings being very tight.  It seemed like it would come down to the last game in the quarterfinals to determine who would be our semi-finalists.  We had 22 quarterfinalists, with each Division having 6 bowlers.  The cut ratio from the quarterfinals to the semi-finals is 1 in 3, so that meant we would cut to the Top 2 bowlers in each Division.  The A Division would see Bryton Bobbitt (+52) as your #1 seed and he would take on #2 seed Jason Lowery (+24).  The B Division #1 seed and #1 seed overall would be Ken W. Davis (+114) and he would face off with red-hot Eddie Wilcox (+81).  The C Division would have SFT veteran Ted McKay (+81) as the #1 seed and he would be matched against newcomer and #2 seed Donnell Martin (+57).

The C Division semi-final would go back and forth between Ted and Donnell.  Their match would come down to the ninth and tenth frame as Ted would catch fire and strike in the ninth and tenth to finish at 236.  This would put pressure on Donnell to strike out in the tenth to have a chance to tie the match.  Donnell would get the first strike, but would only get nine on the second shot to finish out at 223, giving Ted the win.  The B Division would start off with Ken and Eddie looking to figure out the pair.  Unfortunately, we would have a break halfway through the match as the pair had a lane breakdown.  We would resume the match with both bowlers being neck and neck.  Eddie would strike in the eighth and ninth to get a lead while Ken would get 7-spare in both frames as he was unable to keep up.  Eddie would put the match away with a big strike in the tenth to win the match, 235 to 216

The A Division semi-final would be a nail biter as Bryton and Jason would go back and forth throughout the match.  It would come down to the tenth frame as Bryton would double and get nine on the fill to finish at 199.  Jason would get up needing at strike on the first ball in the tenth to win, but nine-spare and strike would tie the match.  Jason’s first ball in the tenth would look good off his hand, but hit a bit high leaving the 6-pin.  Jason would pick up the spare and now would need to strike in order to force a roll-off.  Jason’s fill shot would look good and this time it would carry the pocket to finish at 199 and forcing a ninth/tenth frame roll-off.

The rules to the ninth and tenth frame roll-off would see each bowler’s handicap divided by 5, with the decimal playing in the event of another tie.  Bryton would get 2.8 pins of handicap while Jason would get 3.4 pins.  Bryton was the #1 seed, so he had choice of who started first and which lane to start on.  Bryton would choose to start the ninth frame on the left lane and have Jason start the match.  Jason would get up on the right lane for the ninth frame and would crush the pocket for a strike.  Bryton would get up on the left lane and his first ball would hit the pocket but leave a flat ten-pin.  Bryton would pull his spare shot and miss the ten-pin to the left to put himself into a hole.  Bryton would get up for his tenth frame and would put up a 3-bagger to make up for the open in ninth to finish at 41.8.  Jason would just need to mark and get good count to win the match.  Jason’s first ball in the tenth would go a bit high leaving the 6-10.  Jason would need to pick this up to win the match and his spare attempt would chop the 6-pin to leave him with a score of 31.4, letting Bryton advance to the Finals.

Going into the Finals we would see all three bowlers looking to add another SFT title to their resumes.  Ted McKay was looking for his 4th AHT SFT title and was making a rare appearance in the Finals.  If you have been around SFT for a while, then you have probably have met Ted.  He’s been bowling these events since we started and it was good to see him doing well, but first he would have to get by Eddie Wilcox and Bryton Bobbitt.  Eddie and Bryton were looking to add their 2nd titles as they had both won their first titles earlier this season.  Bryton won at Bowler Mesa last month and Eddie won his first title at Bowlero Glendale in September.  Bryton was looking at extending his lead in the 2021 Fall quarterly circuit and also looking to get into the Top 4 of the Player of the Year points race.  Eddie Wilcox was also looking at moving up in the quarterly circuit points with a win and had been bowling well all day.

The Finals would start off with bang as Eddie and Bryton would throw crushing strikes.  Ted would open in the first but then get on track by getting his spares in the second and third frames.  Eddie would double in the second to make up any handicap difference and spare in the third and fourth frames to set the pace.  Bryton would spare in the second and continue to spare throughout the match.  We would get down to the final few frames with Eddie holding a slight lead.  Eddie would put the match away with strikes in the eighth and ninth frames.  It would come down to see who would finish in second as Bryton would open in the ninth and Ted would strike.  Bryton would nine-spare and strike to finish the tenth with a 177.  Ted would strike and split on his fill to finish at 210.  Eddie would strike and nine-spare to finish at 253, giving him his 2nd AHT SFT title and $850.00!  Congrats to Ted McKay on 2nd place and also Bryton Bobbitt on 3rd place.

Thank you to everyone that came out this weekend for our 2-squad event.  We will have our very last tournament of the 2021 season next Sunday, December 5th at Glenfair Lanes.  We hope to see you there!

FINALS - Bryton Bobbitt vs. Eddie Wilcox vs. Ted McKay