Our event this weekend was at AMF Chandler Lanes and we had a pretty good turnout! We had 82 total entries (57 qualifying and 25 economy parlays), 24 total cashers, and a 1 in 3.41 cash ratio and paid out over $4,650.00 in main and side event prize funds. Players bowled on the 45ft PBA Dragon oil pattern. This house is usually one of the highest scoring houses due to a lot of friction on the lanes and we did see some higher scoring than in previous tournaments. We had not one, but two 300 games and one 800 series this weekend. Congrats to Maurice Sykes on shooting his very 1st 300 game with his newly drilled Trend 2. Also, congrats to Hunter Mayes for shooting 300 and 800 series in our quarterfinals round. Hunter’s 3-game series would be one of the highest scratch series we’ve seen as he was able to shoot 822 (279-300-243) using his Purple Hammer.
As always, we want to welcome our first-time bowlers to the SFT AHT family! Welcome Kyle Ponzo to our little bowling family! We hope you had a good time at your first event and we look forward to seeing you at the next one! Congrats to Martin Ho, Peyton Lee and CJ Locke on advancing to their first quarterfinals or first one in a while! Also, congrats to Martin Ho on being this weekend’s only Parlay Power player. Martin was able to advance to the quarterfinals through his $25 economy parlay entry! We almost always have one bowler that advances by winning the parlay and bowling well again. Congrats to Bradley Baltazar for winning Momma’s Mystery Pot, with a 198 game, for $120.00! Your winner of the free Track plastic ball raffle, with an option to upgrade to any Track High Performance ball for $85.00, was Tracy Lee.
The quarterfinals were bowled on the fresh oil pattern. We had 18 quarterfinalists, with each Division having 6 bowlers. The cut ratio from the quarterfinals to the semi-finals is 1 in 3, so that meant we would cut to the Top 2 bowlers in each Division. After the re-oil, the pattern was still high scoring with the standings being tight and semi-finalists being determined by the final game of the quarterfinals. In the A Division, your #1 seed would be Hunter Mayes (+240) and he would have to face off against Ernie Mendoza (+101). In the B Division, you would see 2020 AHT SFT Player of the Year Ron Gonzales (+173) emerge as your #1 seed and he would have to take on Quentin Bell (+121). The C Division was led by red-hot youth bowler Ryan Doyle (+156) and he would face off with another up-and-coming youth bowler in Peyton Lee (+139).
The A Division Semi-Finals would be a really good match between Hunter Mayes and a former SFT Player of the Year Ernie Mendoza. The match would start off close with both bowlers trying to find the right line to carry the pocket. Hunter was giving Ernie 16 pins of handicap and as they made their way through the first three frames it looked like it would be a close match. They both would leave single pin spares and stay clean through the first three frames. The fourth frame you could see they lined up as both Hunter and Ernie would strike in the fourth and fifth frames. Hunter would crush the pocket in the fifth frame, but leave a stone 9-pin which he would pick up. Ernie would strike in the sixth to take a twenty-pin lead. In the seventh frame Ernie would let his ball get a bit too far right and it would hit late leaving the 2-10 split, which he wouldn’t convert. Ernie would try to close out the tenth frame to put pressure on Hunter, but he would strike and go nine-spare for 234. Hunter would strike and strike and strike as he would punch out for a 6-bagger to win the match with a 254-234.
The B Division Semi-Final would a bit lower scoring as both bowlers would struggle with pair. Ron Gonzales would miss a couple of spares in the last couple frames while Quinten would do enough to win the match, 200 to 179. The C Division Semi-Final would see Ryan Doyle stay hot and while Peyton Lee would struggle with the lane transition. Ryan would cruise to the finish winning the match, 264 to 215.
Going into the Finals we would see Hunter Mayes looking for his 2nd AHT SFT title. Hunter had been bowling great all day as he had already shot 300 and an 800 series earlier today with the only thing missing was the title to go along with his dominance today. Standing in his way was Quentin Bell, who was looking for his 3rd title and trying to get himself back into the 2021 SFT Player of the Year points race. Ryan Doyle was looking at improving on his previous Finals appearance as he had come in 2nd place at Kyrene earlier this year. Ryan has been bowling our events for the last few months and was looking for his first title and adding some more money to his SMART fund.
The Finals would start off with Hunter picking up where he left off, striking in the first four frames. Hunter was looking at making up the handicap difference that he was giving to Quentin and Ryan. Quentin would open with a 4-6 split that he wouldn’t convert, then would go strike and seven-spare in the third frame. Ryan would open up with seven-spare, strike, nine-spare to stay clean and take an early lead with his handicap. Ryan would double in the fourth and fifth frames to extend his lead, while Hunter would nine-spare in the fifth to break up his striking streak. Quentin would throw a 4-bagger in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh frames to get himself back into the match. Quentin’s run would hit an unfortunate turn of events in the eighth frame as he would hit the pocket but leave the 4-9, which he wouldn’t pick up. Ryan would go nine-spare in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth frames, leaving ten-pins. He would pick up all of them to stay clean. Hunter would throw a 3-bagger in the sixth, seventh and eighth frames to get himself back into the match.
It would all come down to the ninth and tenth frames. Quentin would spare in the ninth and then in the tenth would strike and nine-spare to finish at 234. Ryan would strike in the tenth and then get a some carry to for a double and then would strike again to close out the tenth with a score of 253. This would put pressure on Hunter to get a strike on his first ball in the tenth. Hunter would get up and crush the pocket, but would leave a ring 7-pin. Hunter would pick up the spare and then strike to finish at 253. This would leave both Ryan and Hunter in a tie for first place and we would go to a ninth and tenth frame roll-off to determine the winner.
The rules to the roll-off would see each bowler’s handicap divided by 5, with the decimal playing in the event of another tie. Hunter would get 1.2 pins of handicap while Ryan would get 7.4 pins. Hunter was the overall #1 seed, so he had choice of who started first and which lane to start on. Hunter chose the right lane to start on and would start first. Hunter’s first ball would hit light mixing up the pins for a strike. Ryan would get up for his ninth frame and would hit the pocket, tripping the ten-pin late for a strike. Ryan’s first shot in the tenth would hit the pocket light and get another strike. Ryan’s second shot in the tenth would hit the pocket late leaving a four-pin, which he would pick up to finish the roll-off with a score of 56.4. This would force Hunter to double in the tenth and get six-pins to win. Hunter’s first shot on the tenth would hit the pocket leaving the 7-pin, but a late messenger would trip it out for a strike. Hunter’s next shot in the tenth would read early hitting the pocket and almost leaving the 6-8 split, but the 8-pin would fall late. Hunter would pick up the spare to finish at 50.2 in the roll-off. This would give Ryan his first AHT SFT title and $900.00 first place prize, which would be going into his scholarship account. Congrats to Hunter Mayes for 2nd place and also congrats to Quentin Bell for 3rd place.
Thank you to everyone that came out this weekend. We hope to see you all next Sunday at AMF McRay for our 2-squad standard event. Hope you all have a good week!
FINALS - Hunter Mayes vs. Quentin Bell vs. Ryan Doyle
