Our event this weekend at Mesa East Bowl was a two-squad standard, and sometimes that means less entries since there isn’t as many squads. Well it was jam packed with almost 50 bowlers per squad! We had a total of 93 entries (55 Qualifying & 28 Economy Parlay), 26 cashers, a 1 in 3.5 cash ratio and paid out over $4,000.00 in main and side event prize fund. The players bowled on a pattern we don’t use often that is a tough one to get used to. The PBA pattern Badger that is 52 foot in length. This is the longest oil pattern used in competitive play and “hooking” your ball into the pocket isn’t really an option at the beginning. You have to get used to your ball fading back high flush until they start to break down a little bit.
We want to welcome some more new bowlers to the SFT AHT family! Trevor Jolley, Symphone Horne, Jordan Molotsky, William Miller, Mark Large, Brian Schamber, and Chris Stafford all bowled in their first event this weekend! A special congrats to Mark Large, and Chris Stafford who made it to the quarter finals in their first event! Nice bowling guys!
The quarter finals for two squad standard don’t have re-oiling because of the time restraint, which sometimes can cause the scores to be higher with the lanes breaking down and getting drier. In this case, the scores weren’t much higher at all. If anything, they were lower. The Cut score in A division was +53 with Shawn Kearney being the #1 seed and Matthew Zweig being the #2 seed. In the B division the cut score was +51 and had #1 seed Bill Brackett taking on #2 seed Ernie Mendoza. In the C division the cut score was +28 and #1 seed Patrick Sherdian was taking on Jim Alme.
The A division final match was a bit back and forth, but a string inevitably allowed Matt to take a steady lead and shut Shawn out by the 8th/9th frame. Matt bowled one of his highest scores of the tournament with a nice 240+ game scratch. The B division final match between Bill and Ernie was a bit closer than the A division final match. Ernie, who didn’t bowl well in qualifying was able to use an exemption he had from being 2016 Player of the Year, and he took advantage of it. He ended up throwing a string and staying clean to sneak out the win against Bill. The C division final match was between Patrick Sheridan and Jim Alme and both both players were looking to be in their first final match. Jim was able to stay clean and strike here and there to capitalize on some missed spares by Patrick. Jim ended up moving on with a score of 212 with handicap. The final match would be Matt Zweig vs Ernie Mendoza vs Jim Alme.
The final match started off very close, and an open frame by Matt Zweig seemed to give a huge opening to Ernie. Ernie held the lead, staying clean and making good shots. However, Matt started a string in the middle to the end of the game to put the pressure back on Ernie, and in the 8th frame Ernie missed the 4-7 spare to lose the lead and give it back to Matt. Matt was able to stay clean the rest of the game and Ernie wasn’t able to get the lead back allowing Matt to squeak out his 2nd SFT AHT title by only 3 pins. Ernie finished 2nd and Jim 3rd!
Thanks to everyone that came out today! Thanks for your patience. It was a lot of bowlers for only two squads, but we all had a great time and we hope you did too! See you all at our next event at Brunswick Tri-City! Check out our tournament partner’s event, ACBA, next Sunday as well!
