Our event this weekend was at Bowlero Mesa and we had a pretty good turnout considering that there were a couple of other events going on around the Valley. We had 113 total entries (76 qualifying & 37 economy parlay) for 3 squads, with 29 prize winners and a 1 in 3.89 cash ratio. We paid out over $6,200 in main and side event prize funds. The players bowled on a the 39ft WTBA Seoul oil pattern which is a medium pattern that allowed bowlers to play from a variety of angles. Scores were up and down all day as the pattern transitioned differently from pair to pair depending on how it was being broken down. Some lanes you had to play deep, but others you had to straighten up your line to get the ball to enter the pocket correctly. The bowlers that were able to figure out their pairs were able to stay out of trouble. The average cut scores to the quarterfinals were about +30 which meant that you just had to get 5-10 pins over your average per game to advance to the Quarterfinals.
We want to welcome Mackenzie Paige, Sable St. James, Hydeia Pennington, Chis Temple, Steven Situ, Michael Nguyen, Andy Situ, Robert Fox and Rich Beltoya to the SFT AHT family! We hope you guys all had a good time in your first SFT AHT event and hope we see you back at our future events. Congrats to Brandon Loss and Nick Collins on being this weekend’s Parlay Power Players! Both bowlers took their $25 investment and turned it into a Quarterfinals check with Brandon even making it all the way to the Finals! Also, congrats to Maurice Skyes, Robert Fox, Nick Collins and Trevor Jolley for making their first quarterfinals or who were returning to the quarterfinals in a while. Congrats to Nick Tejada for winning Momma’s Mystery Pot, with a 214 game, for $430.00! Your winner of the free plastic bowling ball, with an option to upgrade to any Track high performance ball for $85.00, was Brandon Bailey!
The Quarterfinals would be bowled on the fresh oil pattern. We would have 22 Quarterfinalists, with all three Divisions having at least 7 bowlers. The cut ratio from the Quarterfinals to the Semi-Finals is 1 in 3, so that meant that we would cut to the Top 2 bowlers in each Division after 3 games. With the re-oil, scoring would be a bit lower as we would see scores more in line with the 1st squad of the tournament. Picking up spares was the key to advancing to the next round and it looked like it would all come down the third and final game of the quarterfinals to see who would make the cut.
Your A Division leader would be Parlay Power Player Brandon Loss (+61) and he would have to face off against up-and-coming youth bowler Cesar Padilla (+37). In the B Division your overall #1 seed would be Bryton Bobbitt (+93) and he would take on Lordan Ferguson (+48). The C Division would have Dan Friedline (+45) emerge as your #1 seed and he would be matched up against Trevor Jolley (+28).
The A Division Semi-Final match would go back and forth with each bowler trying to figure out the pair. Brandon would get lined up throwing a 3-bagger in the sixth, seventh and eighth frames, but would open in the ninth after not being able to convert the 2-10 split. This would give Cesar a chance, but he would struggle to get any carry as he would crush the pocket but leave several single-pin spares. Brandon would double in the tenth to seal up the win and move on to the Finals, 208 to 185. The B Division Semi-Final match would see your #1 seed overall Bryton Bobbitt come out firing on all cylinders early. Lordan would struggle with the pair and could not get lined up fast enough to keep up with Bryton. Bryton would go on to comfortably win the match, 222 to 186. The C Division Semi-Final match would see Dan Friedline and Trevor Jolley going back and forth to grind it out for most of the match. They would both struggle early on the pair with Dan being able to figure it out towards the end of the match to defeat Trevor, 201 to 163.
Going into the Finals we would see all three bowlers looking at winning their first AHT SFT title. Bryton Bobbitt was looking to win his first title in his sixth Finals appearance. This would be his third Finals appearance in the past three months and was long overdue to win. Brandon was looking at improving on his 3rd place finish at the Memorial Day Major earlier this year and was also looking at turning his $25.00 parlay entry into $1,000.00! Dan Friedline was making his first Finals appearance and was not in the progressive pot, so he was looking to get the win and $500.00! What’s amazing is that Dan had knee replacement surgery earlier this summer and was already back and bowling well.
The Finals would start off with Bryton and Brandon striking in the first frame as Dan would struggle to get lined up on the pair. Bryton would jump out to a lead with a 4-bagger to start and would never look back. Brandon would try to keep pace but would open in the sixth frame as he was unable to convert the 2-8-10 split. Brandon would try to get back into the match but would finish up with 199. Dan Friedline would struggle for most of the match as he could not get the ball reaction that he was searching for and would finish up with a score of 161. Bryton would finish up the match with an impressive 224 to finally get his hands on his 1st AHT SFT title and $1,050.00! Congrats to Brandon Loss on 2nd place and to Dan Friedline on 3rd place.
Thank you everyone that came out this weekend! We are taking off next weekend and we’ll be back on Sunday, November 7th at AMF Chandler! Hope you all have a fun, safe Halloween!
FINALS - Brandon Loss vs. Bryton Bobbitt vs. Dan Friedline
