This weekend we had a 3-squad standard tournament at Bowlero Mesa. We had a huge turnout with 139 total entries (100 qualifying entries and 39 economy parlays entries). We had 34 cashers, a 1 in 4.11 cash ratio and paid out over $8,300.00 in main event and side event prize funds. The players bowled on the 48ft PBA Shark oil pattern that plays a bit differently as it is a long pattern in length but does not have a lot of volume in the middle. This creates a bit of an odd transition as the lanes start to “dry out” in the front and middle parts of the lane which forces bowlers to move left (for righties) quickly. However, with most patterns you can still get the ball out towards to outside part of the lane and hook it back but with this pattern if you get it too far outside too early it would hit the out of bounds and not come back. This would result in some lower scores with bowlers only needing to get a few pins over their average each game to get to around +60 to +50 to advance to the quarterfinals.
We had a lot of new bowlers join us this weekend and we want to give a warm welcome to Dustin Pace, Sissy, Bennett, Gene Bennett, Kyle John, Tatum Forrest, Josh Chefalo, Gilbert Sauceda, and Shelby Sauceda, who all bowled in their first event this weekend. We hope you all had a good time and look forward to seeing you at our next event. Congrats to Shelby Sauceda for making to the quarterfinals in her very first event! Also, congrats to Cameron Downing, Sammi Hernreich, Aaron Mendoza, and Richard Vasquez for making their first quarterfinals or their first in quite a while. Congrats to Jason Lowery, Richard Vasquez, and Cayden Matherly for being this weekend’s Parlay Power Players. They were all able to qualify for the quarterfinals with a $30 parlay investment and Cayden even made it to the Finals! Your winner of the free plastic ball raffle, with an option to upgrade to any Track high-performance ball for $85.00, was Sam Hsu.
We would have a huge squad of quarterfinals with 26 bowlers advancing from the qualifying squads. With our 1 in 3 cut ratio from the quarterfinals to the semi-finals, we would cut to the Top 2 bowlers in the A Division and the Top 3 bowlers in the B & C Divisions after 3 games. The quarterfinals would be bowled on the fresh oil pattern and the scores showed as we would see scores more in line with the 1st squad of the tournament. Picking up spares was the key as it would come down to the final few frames to see who would advance to semi-final round.
The A Division would see Sammi Hernreich (+23) emerge as the #1 seed and she would have to face off against #2 seed Ben Perry (+6). The B Division would have Ricky Armstrong (+73) as the #1 seed, and he would take on Chip Carr (+56) and Ken W. Davis (+54). The C Division would feature Lordan Ferguson (+76) as the #1 seed, and he would be up against Parlay Power Player Cayden Matherly (+65) and Mark Yakich (+64).
The A Division Semi-Finals would feature two lefties, in Sammi and Ben, and it would be a grind it out match. Both bowlers would go back and forth throughout most of the game and it would come down to the last couple of frames. Sammi would open in the eighth frame, missing a 6-pin, to let Ben get control of the match. Ben would take advantage and finish out the match clean to beat Sammi, 186 to 178.
The B Division Semi-Final match would see all three bowlers looking to figure out the pair in the first few frames. Ricky would jump out to an early lead with some well-timed strikes. Ken would struggle a bit with the transition on the pair but would get lined up a bit too late. Chip would keep his ball in play and would string enough strings to put some pressure on Ricky and it would come down to the tenth frame. Ken would finish up in third place with a score of 204. Ricky would close out the match with a score of 241. Chip, coming off a strike in the ninth, would need to double to have a chance to pass Ricky in the tenth. Chip would get up in the tenth but was not able to get the much-needed strike and he would finish out the match with a score of 224.
The C Division Semis would see Cayden Matherly run over Lordan and Mark, as he would cruise to a win with a huge score of 252. Lordan would come in second place, in the Division, with a score of 208. Mark would round out the match with a score of 153 for third place in the Division.
Going into the Finals we would see two of the three bowlers making it to the Finals for their very first time. Cayden Matherly was looking to turn his $30 economy parlay entry into $1,400 and his first AHT SFT title in his very first Finals match. The crowd favorite had to be Ricky Armstrong as he had made it to the Finals looking for his first title as well, but he was not in the Progressive Pot! The way that the Progressive Pot works is that all the money that the bowler wins, who is not in the Progressive Pot, is redistributed to all the bowlers that are in the progressive pot who made it to the quarterfinals depending on where they placed. So, you can imagine that everyone was rooting for him to win so they could get more of the $700.00 first place Progressive Pot money in their checks. Finally, we had Ben Perry looking to win his second AHT SFT title. Ben is an up-and-coming bowler who had been bowling well for most of the day and was looking to use this match to get him ready for the big $10K CBE tournament in about three weeks.
The Finals would start out with Ricky choosing to start the match on the left lane. Ricky would lead off with a strike and Ben would follow up with a light mixer as well. Cayden would get seven on his first ball and would go on to pick up the spare. Second frame would see Ricky hit a bit of the transition on the right lane as his first ball would slide way pass the break point and leave him the 2-4-8-10. Ricky would almost make the spare attempt as the 2-pin would fly just behind the ten pin. Ben would be up next and would leave a seven pin which he would spare to stay clean. Cayden would be up on the left lane and would throw a great shot for a strike. Ricky’s third frame would see him hit the pocket light for a 2-pin which he would convert. Ben would get up and strike to try to cut down the handicap that he was giving Ricky and Cayden. Cayden would miss a bit outside in his third frame as he would leave the 1-3-6 and was able to convert the spare. Fourth frame would see Ricky leave the light 2-pin again as he just couldn’t get his ball to carry the pocket. Ricky would go on to spare and Ben would also leave a light 7-pin which he would spare. Cayden would strike to stay in the lead.
Midway through the match and Cayden would remain in the lead as Ricky and Ben couldn’t put any strikes together to try and put some pressure on Cayden. Ricky would miss a bit inside on the fifth frame and leave the 3-6 which he would pick up. Ben would strike as it looked like he had the left lane figured out. Cayden would double as he would slap out the six pin late. Ricky and Ben looked to turn things around in the sixth frame as they both would strike and look to get back into the match. Cayden would not have any of that as he would strike for a Turkey (three in a row) to increase his lead. Ricky’s title hopes were washed away as he would leave the 2-10 split in the seventh frame. Ricky would not be able to pick up the spare and would put him behind Cayden and Ben. Ben would match Ricky as he would leave the 5-10 split on the very next ball. Ben would not pick up the spare and they would remain close. Cayden would trip the 7-pin late for a Ham Bone (for in a row) to run away with the match. Cayden would finish out with a score of 257 and take home $1,450.00 for his first AHT SFT title.
Ricky and Ben would finish out the match to determine the second and third place spots. The projected payouts for second place and third place were $800.00 & $500.00. So, if Ricky would get second place, he would receive $400.00 and $250.00 for third place. Ben was looking at the full pay out amount and it would all come down to the tenth frame. Ricky would be up first in the tenth and would get a double and nine in the tenth to finish at 206. This would mean that Ben would need to strike on his first ball in the tenth and get good count to pass him or would need to mark in the tenth and strike to tie. Ben’s first ball in the tenth frame would hit very light tripping out the 5 and 10 pins late but leaving the 3-pin. Ben would pick up the spare and now would need to strike on his fill ball to tie Ricky for second place. Ben’s fill shot would see him move a bit right and get the ball to read for a light mixer strike to tie Ricky for second place. They would split the payout for 2nd/3rd place and all the other bowlers would see a few extra dollars in their checks.
Thank you to everyone that came out this weekend to bowl our event! We thank you all enough for supporting our tournaments and seeing all of you each weekend. Also, a huge thank you to Hokey Begay and Michael Dragon for stepping in for Tawna this weekend. We could not have run the event without their help. Big thank you to Jay Jay Newell and the Bowler Kyrene staff for hosting us and providing great service.
We will see you all a couple of weeks for our 2-Squad Standard tournament on June 25th at AMF McRay!
Bowlero Kyrene Finals
Ben Perry vs. Ricky Armstrong vs. Cayden Matherly
