Our event this weekend was at AMF Union Hills lanes and it was our second Saturday event of 2020. With all the craziness going on out in the world it was a nice time to relax, have some fun and bowl. We had a great turnout with 92 total entries with (64 qualifying entries & 28 economy parlay entries) which is probably one of our highest turnout for a Saturday event in a while. We had 26 total cashers, a 1 in 3.5 cash ratio and paid out over $4,600.00 in main and side event prize funds! The players bowled on a 43ft Mexico City oil pattern, which started with higher scoring on the fresh pattern, but the scoring pace remained the same for all three squads with the average cut being around +40 for all three divisions.
We want to welcome some new bowlers to the SFT AHT family. Jason Gootzeit and Mark Haensel both bowled in their first event this weekend and we want to welcome them both to our ever growing SFT community! It’s amazing to see that we still are getting new bowlers every week. We hope you all had a good time in your first event, and we look forward to seeing you at the next one! For the first time in quite a while, there was no Parlay Power Player this weekend. This just goes to show you how difficult the pattern was pair to pair. Congrats to Chris Tucker on winning Momma’s Mystery Score today. Chris won $250.00 with a score of 178. Also, congrats to Brandon JohnsonKroman for winning the drawing for a free plastic ball, with an option to upgrade to any high-performance Track bowling ball for $85.00.
The quarterfinals were bowled on freshly oiled lanes and the scores showed it. There were some bowlers that were able to take advantage of the oil and they played a down and in shot making sure to avoid splits. Your A Division leader was Kyle Gilbert (+133) and he would take on Josh Mullen (+63). In the B Division, the scores weren’t as high, but your #1 seed would be Eric Carroll (+1) and he would face off with Dishawn Byrd (+0). In the C Division, we would see Chris Stafford emerge as your leader (+43) and he would have to square off with John Fitzgerald (+4).
The A Division semi-final would see both bowlers start off hot with Kyle and Josh striking back and forth for the first few frames of the match. Towards the middle of the match Josh began to have issues with transition and Kyle would pull away winning the match 233 to 187. The B Division match would also be the same as Eric and Dishawn would start off even, but Dishawn would struggle with transition eventually losing to Eric, 183 to 156. In the C Division we would see an upset as John Fitzgerald was able to throw strikes in the ninth and tenth frame to shut out Chris Stafford, winning 219 to 185.
This would set up our Final match with all three bowlers looking for their very first AHT SFT title and the $960.00 first place prize. All three bowlers have been in the Final match before, but only one would emerge as the winner.
Going into the Final match your #1 seed overall Kyle Gilbert decided to start off the match and boy did he ever. Kyle would throw four strikes in the first five frames to jump out to an early lead. Eric and John would both try to keep pace as Kyle would overcome the handicap disadvantage quickly. John would throw a turkey in frames five, six & seven, but an open in the eighth frame (a nasty 1-3-4-6-7 split which he was unable to convert) would halt his momentum. Eric would struggle with transition on the championship pair and would finish with a score of 183. Kyle would strike out in the eighth, ninth & tenth frames to finish at 244 scratch, winning his first ever AHT SFT title and $960.00. John would finish the match up with a score of 216. Congrats to John for 2nd Place and also to Eric for coming in 3rd Place.
We would like to thank everyone for coming out this weekend and supporting our event. We look forward to seeing you all again next Sunday at AMF McRay Lanes for our last event of the 2020 Winter Circuit! Hope you all stay safe and have a great week!
