This weekend’s event was at Mesa East Bowl and we had a huge turnout for our 2-squad event. We had 59 bowlers just on the first squad alone. In total we had 105 total entries (66 qualifying and 39 economy parlay), 32 cashers a 1 in 3.3 cash ratio and paid out over $7,000.00 in main and side event prize fund. The bowlers bowled on the 36ft PBA Viper oil pattern that was very difficult on the fresh, but seemed to breakdown a bit and allow for some higher scoring as the day went on. The cut for today stayed around +20 with bowlers just needing to hit their average to make the cut to the quarterfinals.
As always we like to welcome the bowlers who bowled their first event with us this weekend. Logan Downey, Matthew McEuen, Rick Passey, Eric Ebenger, Tina Meyers, Derek Pacheco, Chris Locke, Jason Moll and Nick Edinger welcome to the SFT AHT family! Hope to you all had a great time and hope to see you all again! We would like to congratulate this weekend’s Parlay Power Players in Justin Phillips, Joan Harnish and Aaron Bell. They all made the quarterfinals today off their initial $25.00 parlay entry. Also, congrats to Chuck Lucas on winning Momma’s Mystery Score for $500.00 with a nice 175 game. Your winner of the free plastic ball raffle, with the option to upgrade to any Track high-performance ball for $85.00, was Ron McDonald.
Since this was only a 2-squad event, there was no re-oil for the quarterfinals and it would show as scores continued to remain about even. We would cut down to the top 2 bowlers in each Division for your semi-final matches. Your leader in the A Division was Michael Dragon (+39) and he would have to face off with Craig Newcomb (+29). In the B Division we would see Bryton Bobbitt (+86) jump out to the #1 seed overall and he would take on Jim Haines (+74). The C Division would have #1 seed Aaron Stein (+44) take on Connor Bell (+32).
The A Division semi-final match would be a grind fest with both Dragon and Craig unable to strike at all and it would all come down to the final two frames. Craig would open in the 7th frame giving Dragon a chance to take the lead and he was able to get the only strike of the match and fill out his remaining frames to win the match 194 to 164. The B Division would also be a grind fest between Bryton and Jim with Jim being able to string a timely double together midway through the match to defeat Bryton, 203 to 137. The C Division semi-final would go back and forth with Aaron and Connor. Connor was able to get a couple of strikes to move past Aaron, 231 to 188.
Going into the Final match would see both Connor and Jim making their Finals debut. They both were looking to win their first AHT SFT title and the $1,000 prize! Michael Dragon was looking to get his hands on his 4th title and had the most experience going into the Finals.
Your Final match would see all three bowlers struggle out the gate showing how tough today’s pattern was. Jim would struggle to get lined up and would dig himself into a huge hole. Connor would also struggle, but would get a few strikes to keep himself in the match. Michael Dragon would get lined up on left lane, but couldn’t string any strikes together until the eighth frame. Dragon would put some pressure on Connor as he was able to double in the eighth and ninth frames making Connor have to get a mark and good count in the tenth to shut him out. Connor would get up in the tenth and throw his first shot hitting a bit high leaving the 6-pin standing. Connor would miss his spare attempt to finish at 200. Jim would get up and finish out his final frames to get to 164. Dragon would get up needing to mark and get good count to win the match. Dragon’s first ball in the tenth would look good off his hand, but would peel left off the friction going straight through the nose leaving the 4-7-10 split. Dragon would miss the spare attempt to finish at 192. This would give Connor his 1st SFT AHT title and the $1,000.00 first place prize!!! Congrats to Michael Dragon on 2nd place and also to Jim Haines on 3rd place.
We just want to thank everyone that came out to make this 2-squad event so successful. We hope you join us all next Sunday for our final tournament of the 2020 season at Bowlero Kyrene. Thank you again and we hope you all have a great week!!!
FINAL MATCH - Michael Dragon vs. Jim Haines vs. Connor Bell
