Brunswick Tri-City - 10/7/18

Our event this weekend was at Brunswick Tri-City.  We had a nice turnout with all the other tournaments running in other parts of the valley.  We had a total of 59 entries (43 Qualifying & 16 Economy Parlay), 26 cashers, with a 1 in 3.2 cash ratio and paid out over $3,200.00 in main and side event prize funds. The players bowled on a pattern we don’t use often and one that is a tough to get used to. The PBA pattern Badger that is 52 feet in length. This is the longest oil pattern used in competitive play and “hooking” your ball into the pocket really isn’t an option on the fresh oil pattern.  You have to get used to your ball fading back high flush until the pattern starts to break down a little bit.

We want to congratulate our Parlay Power players, Bryton Bobbitt and Sean Brackett!  They both were able to turn their $25 investment into a spot in the quarterfinals.  We also want to congratulate everyone who made it to their first quarterfinals or their first quarterfinals in quite a while.  Congrats to Sammi Hernreich and Sean Brackett!  Your winner of the free Track plastic bowling ball, with an option to upgrade to any high performance Track ball for $85.00, was Sammi Hernreich!

The quarterfinals on the fresh pattern typically have lower scores because of it.  Also due to the fact that there were 5 bowlers in each division, and the 1 in 3 cut ratio to the semi-finals only advanced 1 bowler per division, so we went straight into the Final match. The cut scores in the quarterfinals averaged a little higher requiring +80 on average to advance as the division champion. The division champions were Michael Dragon in the A Division with a nice +92, Sammi Hernreich in the B Division at +64 and Sean Brackett in the C Division at +87.

Going into the Final match you would have to think the favorite to win would be Michael Dragon.  He had just bowled an impressive 266 game scratch, to jump past Derek Hamm, in the 3rd game of the quarterfinals to get into the Finals.  Also he was the most experienced as he was looking for his 3rd AHT SFT title in his 5th title match.  Sammi Hernreich was looking for her 1st title in her 2nd title match and Sean Brackett was also looking for his 1st title in his 1st title match.

Sammi Hernreich would start off the match with spare as all the bowlers were trying to figure out the lanes and find a line to the pocket.  Michael and Sean would also spare as no one was able to get lined up quickly.  Sean would double in the 5th and 6th, after he had missed a few spares, in order to catch back up to Michael and Sammi.  Sammi would stay clean except for a tough 4-6-10 split in the 5th frame.  Michael would have a tough time with the right lane as he couldn’t get any carry.  Also he would miss a tough 6-10 spare in the 7th frame to give Sean and Sammi a chance to take the lead.  It would all come down to the final frame as Sean had just missed a spare in the ninth to give Sammi an opening.  Sammi would finish the tenth frame with a clutch 3-bagger to put her at 220.  This would put pressure on Sean to fill out his frame in order to win.  Sean’s first ball in the tenth was clutch as he crushed the pocket for a strike.  His second ball wasn’t as good as he missed a bit outside and only got three pins.  He would need to pick up at least 2 pins in order to tie or 3 pins for the win.  After some encouraging words from his grandpa Bill and his dad Jeff, Sean calmly picked up his spare to finish at 225 for his 1st AHT SFT title and $650.00!!  Congrats to Sammi Hernreich on 2nd place and also to Michael Dragon for 3rd place.

Thank you for everyone that came out to support the event!  We look forward to seeing everyone at our next event in two weeks at AMF McRay.  Hope you all have a great week!