AMF Tempe Village - 2/23/20

Our event this weekend was at AMF Tempe Village and it was a BIG ONE!  We had a huge turnout with 117 entries through 3 squads, which consisted of 78 qualifying entries and 39 economy parlay entries. This created a huge payout of over $6,000.00 in main and side event prize funds!  The players bowled on a very tough 45ft PBA Dragon oil pattern that forced most players to play the middle part of the lane. It was very difficult to play to the right unless you were pointing it right at the head pin.  Most of the player’s that had success were in around the 3rd and 4th arrow. The cut scores for the weekend were around the +40 range which only requires bowling a little bit over average for the 3-game set.

We had some new bowlers come out for their first event this weekend! We want to welcome Anthony Logan, Connor Bell, Alex Pellegrino, Todd Browning, Christina Browning, Louis Amaral, Daniel Bhella & Michael Dominik.  We hope all of you had a good time in your first event. Christina and Michael were able to advance to the quarterfinals in their very first event.  We did have a few Economy Parlay power players in David Saffold, Michael Dominik and Tyler Anderson.  We also had some first-time quarterfinalists or bowlers that haven’t been in the quarterfinals in a while in Tyler Anderson, Sean Casey, Michael Domink and Christina Browning.  Congrats to everyone on those accomplishments! Also, congrats to Kevin Convirs for winning Momma’s Mystery Pot, with a score of 220, for $290!  Your winner of the plastic ball raffle, with an option to upgrade to any Track High-Performance ball for $85.00, was Hokey Begay!

The quarterfinals were bowled on a fresh oil pattern and because of this scores were a bit lower. Bowling average pretty much allowed most to move on to the semi-final round. In the semi-finals, the A Division would be led by Kevin Convirs (+56) and he would have to take on #2 seed Kyle Gilbert (+53) & #3 seed Jim Dempsey (+51).  The B Division would see #1 seed Brian Richardson (+105) face off with #2 seed Ron Gonzales (+51).  Finally, the C Division had newcomer Christina Browning (+155) as your #1 seed overall and she would have to bowl against #2 seed Tyler Anderson (+45) and Mike Hodge (+13).

The C Division semi-final match would see Christina stay hot and easily defeat both Tyler and Mike with a score of 238 to 202 for Mike and 161 for Tyler.  The A Division semi-final match would be decided by who could stay clean and pick up spares.  Kevin Convirs would strike just enough to get the win with a score of 212 defeating Jim at 189 and Kyle at 181.  The B Division semi-final match would be a nail biter as it would all come down to the tenth frame.  Brian Jackson would finish up the match but missed a key spare to finish at 223.  Ron Gonzales would try his best to dig himself out of a hole by striking on 5 of the last 6 frames finishing up at 217.  Brian Richardson would get up in the tenth and throw a very good shot only to leave a solid nine-pin. He would go on to pick up his spare of fill out the tenth for a score of 228 barely getting by Brian Jackson and Ron Gonzales.

This would give us a Final match made up of all three #1 seeds.  Christina Browning would still be the overall #1 seed.  She would be making her first Finals appearance in her very first tournament and had been on fire all day.  Christina is a relatively new bowler that bowls at AMF Tempe Village on Tuesday nights and came out with her husband Todd and give our tournament a try.  Kevin Convirs had a good look from the left side for most of the day and was looking for his 2nd AHT SFT title and the $1,000 first place prize.  Brian Richardson was also vying for his 4th AHT SFT title and had been able to control the pocket for most of the day.

The Final match would start off with all three bowlers trying to get lined up.  Christina would pick a few spares and try to stay ahead of the guys.  Brian started off quickly with a couple of strikes but midway through the match he would have issues as the lanes began to transition.  This left an opening for Kevin to get hot as he would throw several powerful strikes as he tried to make up the handicap difference.  All three bowlers would struggle with transition, but it would come down to tenth frame as all three bowlers had a chance to win.  Christina would finish at 185 after a few missed spares.  Brian would throw his first shot in the tenth but hit the pocket only to leave “Ocho Diaz” (8-10) split and finish at 193.  Kevin was able to strike and fill his tenth frame to finish at 208 winning his 2nd AHT SFT title and the $1,000 first place prize.  Congrats to Brian Richardson on 2nd place and also to Christina Browning on 3rd place.

Thanks to everyone for coming out and making the event such a successful one! We look forward to seeing you all at our event next weekend at Bowlero Mesa!