Our event this weekend was at AMF Chandler Lanes and we had a pretty good turnout! We had 97 total entries (78 qualifying and 19 economy parlay), 29 total cashers, and a 1 in 3.34 cash ratio and paid out over $5,600.00 in main and side event prize funds. Players bowled on the Kegel 42ft Autobahn oil pattern. Most of the players played in the middle of the lane trying to push their ball out past the 2nd arrow and trying to blend out the pattern for higher scores. This house typically has a lot of friction and no matter what we put out here we always tend to see some higher scores than previous tournaments. The oil pattern did hold up for the first couple of squads but started to breakdown on the last qualifying squad of the day as we would see the cut scores go from about +30 range to +60 range to advance.
As always, we want to welcome our first-time bowlers Amanda Larson, Lemar Jones, Theodore Nunez, Matthew Cavanaugh, Daniel Tullar, Brandon Dugan, John Kubler, Tiffany Davis, and Chase Hogan to the SFT bowling family! We hope you all had a good time at your first event and we look forward to seeing you at the next one! Congrats to Michael Lemos and Donnell Martin on advancing to their first quarterfinals or their first in quite a while! Also, congrats to Sean Ashley and Chase Rohlik on advancing to the quarterfinals through the Economy Parlay! They both made the quarterfinals off their $30.00 parlay investment and we almost always have one or two bowlers that advances by winning the parlay and then bowling well again. Congrats to Zach Huglin on winning the Momma’s Mystery Pot, with a score of 171, for $500.00! Your winner of the free Track plastic ball raffle, with an option to upgrade to any Track High Performance ball for $95.00, was Jeremy Lorenzo!
Since this was a 3-squad tournament, there would be a re-oil before the quarterfinals. The pattern seemed to play more in line with previous tournaments as we would see scores shoot through the roof and with the standings being tight. With 24 quarterfinalist, 8 bowlers in each Division, we would cut to the Top 2 in each Division and we would see the semi-finalists determined by the final game of the quarters. In the A Division, your #1 seed would be Kyler Adams (+118) and he would have to face off against Kyle Ponzo (+117). In the B Division, you would see Mitchell Hays (+154) versus Jonah Tafoya (+110). The C Division was led by #1 seed overall, Donnell Martin (+158) and he would face off with Michael Lemos (+129).
In the Semi-Finals, Kyler and Kyle would go back and forth with each one not backing down one bit. Unfortunately for Kyle he could not carry the pocket and we would see Kyler run off nine strikes in a row to win, 275 to 203. The B Division semi-final would be a nail biter as we would see it all come down to the tenth frame. Mitchell Hays would need to at least double in order to win the match as Jonah had doubled and got nine on his fill. Mitchell would strike on the first ball in the tenth, but would leave the pocket 7-10 on his second shot. This would give Jonah the win, 265 to 257. The C Division semi-final would see Donnell and Michael both struggle with lane transition but Michael would get enough to defeat Donnell, 215 to 201.
Going into the Finals and we would see Michael Lemos making his very first Finals match. Michael is a SFT rookie who has been bowling more events over the last few months and it looked like he was finally seeing his hard work paying off. Jonah Tafoya was looking to get his second AHT SFT title and was making his 11th straight cash in the 11 events has bowled over the last year or two. Jonah is a somewhat regular SFT bowler and was looking to win big today. Standing in both of their way was Kyler Adams, who would have to the favorite going in the Finals. Kyler was bowling every well throughout the day and had just posted up a few huge scores. Michael and Kyler were both looking to win their first AHT SFT title.
The Final match would start off with all three bowlers struggling with carry to start out. Kyler was able to get lined up quickly as he was able to string a few strikes to make up the handicap difference he was giving Jonah and Michael. Jonah would keep pace as he got settled on the pair. Michael would stay clean for the first few frames but could not carry the pocket to keep pace with Kyler and Jonah as it looked like they were run away with the match. It would come down to the tenth frame to determine our winner. Michael Lemos would finish up with a score of 215 for third place, which in any other Finals this might’ve been enough to win. Jonah would finish up next as he was coming off a double in the eighth and ninth frames. Jonah’s first ball would hit the pocket light and leave a 4-pin on first ball in the tenth. Jonah would pick up the spare and go on to strike on his fill shot to finish with a score of 254. Kyler would be up as he was coming off a spare in the ninth and would need all three strikes to win the match by 1-pin. Kyler’s first ball in the tenth would crush the pocket. Kyler’s second shot in the tenth would look the same but leave a flat 10-pin and Kyler would pick up the spare to finish with a score of 245. This would give Jonah Tafoya his second AHT SFT title and $1,000.00 first place prize. Congrats to Kyler Adams on second place and also congrats to Michael Lemos on third place.
Thank you to everyone that came out today to bowl our event. A huge thank you to Shannon Fletcher and the staff at AMF Chandler for hosting us today and providing great customer service. Thanks to Michael Dragon and Tawna McDonald for all the work they do behind the scenes for us to keep putting these tournaments on for you all.
We will be back in a couple weeks with a 3-squad tournament as we make our return to Bowlero Gilbert on Sunday, June 23rd. The last Strikeforce event at Bowlero Gilbert was September, 2018. If you have never been to Bowlero Gilbert it is a great facility with 44 lanes with a house being split almost in half with 28 lanes on one side of the house and 16 lanes on the other side. We hope to see you all come out and support this event so we can schedule more at this center.
Hope you all have a good week and we’ll see you all soon!
AMF Chandler Finals - Kyler Adams vs. Jonah Tafoya vs. Michael Lemos
