Our event this weekend was at Bowlero Via Linda and we had a huge turnout for our 2 squad event! We would hit a record with our 1st squad almost capping out with 68 bowlers! We had 119 total entries (77 qualifying and 42 parlays), 32 cashers, 1 in 3.75 cash ratio and paid out over $7,400.00 in main and side event prize funds! The players bowled on a 38ft PBA Mike Aulby oil pattern that was very misleading. Many of the bowlers would think that since there was more oil volume that it would play similar to a house shot, but with all the oil in the front of the lanes it made it very hard to swing the ball. Because the pattern wasn't very long or very short, it allowed players to attack it from all angles. We had straighter players do well and once the pattern started to break down we would see players that like to cover more boards and curve it more find success.
We would like to welcome Gabriel Galindo, Derek Grebe, Sean Harris, Briana Soltis and Jeremy Smith to the SFT family. I hope that you all had a good time and hope to see you again. We also had some Parlay Power Players in Aaron Stein, David Carrington and Orshawante Bryant! They all made it to the quarterfinals off of their $25 Economy Parlay entry with David making it to the Finals! We also want to congratulate Gabriel Galindo, David Carrington, Chris Strehl and William Milho for making their first quarterfinals or their first quarterfinals in quite a while. We would have not one, but two Momma’s Mystery Pot winners. Chris Brunick and William Roberts would win $500.00 each, as Chris would win the pot in the first squad with a score of 224 and William would win on the second squad with a score of 166. Your winner of the free plastic ball raffle, with an option to upgrade to any Track high performance ball for $85.00, was Chris Strehl.
Since this event was only 2 squads, there was no re-oil before the quarterfinals. This resulted in some medium to high scores with the standings being very, very tight. All the Division leaders would be determined by the final game of the quarterfinals. With our 1 in 3 cut ratio from the quarterfinals to the semi-final round, we would cut to the Top 2 in each Division. The A Division would see Brandon Loss (+77) emerge as your #1 seed with a huge scratch 238 game to secure his spot in the semi-finals and he would have to face off with newcomer Gabriel Galindo (+63). The B Division would see Aaron Stein (+41) dominate and he would take on Ron McDonald (+0), who just edged out Bryton Bobbitt for the #2 seed. The C Division would have rising youth bowler Ryan Doyle (+98) as the #1 seed and we would see him matched up against newcomer David Carrington (+92) in the semi-finals.
All three semi-final matches would see the #2 seed advance as the #1 seeds were unable to take advantage of the lane selections that they had made. Gabriel Galindo would upset Brandon Loss in the A Division semi-final throwing a huge 247 game at Brandon (157) to punch his ticket to the Finals. The B Division would see Aaron Stein run out of steam leaving some ugly splits as Ron McDonald was able to stay clean to win the match, 225 to 151. The C Division would be closer as Ryan and David would battle it out, but David would get a 3-bagger in the sixth, seventh and eighth frames to cruise to the win, 247 to 198.
Going into the Finals we would see Gabriel Galindo and David Carrington both making their first Finals and also looking for their 1st AHT SFT title with $1,150 first place prize money. Gabriel is actually Ryan Doyle’s uncle and they were really close to meeting in the Finals together. Hopefully they have a chance down the road at meeting in the Finals; it would be an interesting match for sure. David has been bowling our events off and on and had been bowling well all day. He was one of the Economy Parlay winners and was looking to make the most off his $25.00 economy parlay entry. Ron McDonald was looking for his 5th title and using this tournament to get ready for the TAT in Las Vegas next weekend.
The Final match would see all three bowlers come out firing with each throwing a strike. David and Ron would struggle with one lane while they were able to strike on the other. Gabriel would use this to go nine-spare and strike, strike to close down on the handicap difference that he was giving the other two bowlers. Midway through the match and it was evenly matched. David would open in the seventh as he was unable to convert a baby split. Ron would split in the eighth leaving the 4-6, which he was unable to convert. Gabriel was able to continue to strike and would finish out the match shooting 238 to win the match and get his first title and $1,150.00 prize! Ron and David would battle it out for 2nd place with David finishing with a score of 196 and Ron would be unable to catch him finish in the 3rd at 184. While Gabriel would win the big prize, David would get $600.00 for 2nd place and Ron would get $400.00 for 3rd place.
Thank you to everyone that came out this weekend for our final event of the 2021 Spring Circuit. We will announce your Circuit winners once the points have been updated from this tournament. We are going to be on a two week break and our next event is scheduled at AMF Mesa on Sunday, July 18th.
Hope you all have a safe, happy 4th of July and also good luck to everyone heading up to Las Vegas for the True Amateur Tournament (TAT)!
FINAL MATCH - Gabriel Galindo vs. Ron McDonald vs. David Carrington
