Mesa East Bowl - 8/7/16

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Well, this was a great event for one small reason. We ran on time for pretty much the whole event! This was our first three squad event that we put 2 hours between each squad and it helped tremendously! The number of bowlers that we are getting per squad now is too large to only leave an hour and a half between squads. The event this Sunday drew 102 entries in three squads, which were 59 qualifying entries and 43 economy parlay entries. There were also 26 prize winners, a 1 in 3.9 cash ratio and a payout of over $4,000.00. The players bowled on a 40ft Kegel Highway to Hell oil pattern which, as the name indicates, wasn't the easiest of patterns. There was plenty of hook, even for 40 feet, which meant players could play all over the lane from straight to inside, to really far left. However, this also meant that the pair to pair was very different since players were playing all over the place. Regardless of all of that, the key was being able to make your spares.

As always, our SFT AHT family grew this weekend. We'd like to welcome Scott Rider, Dishawn Byrd, Jeffrey Rodman, Jim Testa, and Joe Banno to our big group of bowlers! Again, thanks to the new rule for entering averages we saw some success out of the new bowlers with Joe Banno making the quarter finals and Dishawn Byrd making the final match. This season has proven to show that the new bowlers don't have to come in and bowl several events before having a chance to cash like in previous seasons. However, we also haven't seen an unfair amount of new bowlers doing well to indicate to much of an advantage. I really think the members have done a great job of finding a happy medium in the rules for entering average. 

We had quite a few bowlers making their first ever SFT AHT quarter finals! Joe Banno, Kyle Howard, Dishawn Byrd, and Michael Metzler, got their first SFT AHT check this weekend and became offical members! Congrats to all of you on some nice bowling! A special congrats to Joe Banno, Rene Sandoval and Mike Metzler on being this event's "Parlay Power Players" turning their $25 into a nice quarter finals check!

The semi-final matches were between Ernie Mendoza and Jason Satterlee in the A division, Brian Jackson and Dishawn Byrd in the B division, and Mike Metzler and Jason Tunay in the C division. All of these matches had stories behind them, from Ernie trying to regain the lead in the overall player of the year race, to Brian Jackson looking to show everyone his vast improvments to make his first title match, or Metzler winning his first SFT AHT title in front of his family and friends at his home house. The good part about so many story lines is that there was a good chance one of them would make it to the final match. What we ended up with was Ernie coming out of A looking to take a nice lead in the player of the year race, and Dishawn Byrd and Mike Metzler looking to surge in the rookie of the year race, but both completley inexperienced in title matches.

Well, the player that got off to the slowest start was Dishawn, who later admited that the stage got to him a little bit and he had a hard time slowing everything down and keeping composed. The back forth was between Ernie and Mike who both had a chance to win for the majority of the game. Basically, Mike never made enough big mistakes to lose the match, and Ernie never made enough good shots in a row to win the match. Mike was able to convert some tough spares when he needed to and was able to win the final match with one of the lowest winning scores we have seen inawhile, 228. This means we have now had back to back events with an economy parlay winner taking home the title! Last event was Chad Clapp and this Sunday Mr. Metzler. A total of $1,400.00 paid out to two guys who only paid $25 each! Pretty awesome!

If that isn't awesome, then what about being the first ever tournament at Dave & Busters next Sunday? We look forward to seeing you all there for our Track match play challenge format!

Final Match: 

SFT AHT Standard - Mesa East Bowl