Bowlero Mesa - 2/6/22

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Our event this weekend was at Bowlero Mesa and we would see another huge turnout.  When I mean huge, it was like bowling on Monday of one of our Major tournaments.  We had 164 total entries (119 qualifying and 45 economy parlays) with 41 cashers, a 1 in 3.97 cash ratio and we would pay out over $10,000.00 in main and side event prize funds.  Our first squad of the day had a 67 bowlers, which was amazing to see!  The players bowled on the 42ft WTBA Tokyo oil pattern that played pretty tricky for most of the day.  There were some higher scores but for most of the day bowlers were able to play a variety of angles on the pattern.  The cut scores stayed around +60 for most of the day, which meant that you had to bowl about 10-15 pins over your average per game to qualify.

We had quite a few new bowlers that would join us for their first event.  We want to welcome Jedidiah Titchenal, Tyler Cannon, Bill Townsley, Ty Gardner and Christopher Breeze who all bowled in their first event this weekend.  We hope you guys had a good time and look forward to seeing you at our next event.  Congrats to Garret Strehl, Andy Situ and Clarence Young for being this weekend’s Parlay Power Players.  All these bowlers were able to qualify for the quarterfinals off their $25 parlay investment.  Also, congrats to Jim Cote, Audie Atkins, Darwin Hicks, Andy Situ, Clarence Young, Luke Sullivan and Trevor Jolley for making their first quarterfinals or their first quarterfinals in quite a while.  We would see not one, but two Momma’s Mystery Pots won this weekend.  Congrats to Steve Convirs and Audie Atkins who both bowled a 157 to win $250.00 each.  Also, congrats to Garret Strehl who would also win Momma’s Mystery Pot, with a score of 172, for $500.00!!!  Your winner of the free plastic ball raffle, with an option to upgrade to any Track high-performance ball for $85.00, was Justin Surat.

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 to advancing to the Semi-Final round, with those that could limit mistakes and leave makeable spares being able to separate from the pack.  With the bigger turnout, we would cut to the Top 3 in the A and B Division, while the C Division would cut to the Top 4.  The A and B semi-final match would be a one game match with handicap and the winner moving on the Finals against the other Division winners.  The C Division would cut to the Top 2 and then bowl another match to see who would advance to meet the other Division winners.

Your A Division leader would be Ben Perry (+113) and he would have to face off against Nykolas Walker (+35) and we would have a tie for the 3rd spot.  Both Kyle Ponzo (+17) and Richard Kasting, Jr. (+17) would have to face off in a ninth and tenth frame roll-off to determine the final spot in the A Division semi-finals.  The B Division your overall #1 seed would be Brandon Bailey (+101) and he would take on Josh Brown (+80) and Lenny Grom (+44).  The C Division would see Steve Convirs (+70) emerge as your #1 seed and he would be matched up against Andy Situ (+46), Darwin Hicks (+45) and Marcus Haley (+31).

The way that the ninth and tenth frame roll-off works, is that each bowler’s handicap is divided by 5 with the decimal playing in the event of another tie.  So, Kyle Ponzo would be getting 3 pins of handicap and Richard Kasting, Jr. would be getting 2.8 pins for his roll-off.  The roll-off would start with Richard Kasting, Jr. throwing his first ball in the ninth frame which would crush the pocket, but leave a ring ten pin.  Junior would pick up the spare and Kyle would be up to start his ninth frame.  Kyle’s ninth frame shot would go on to also crush the pocket, but would carry for strike.  Kyle would get up in the tenth and his first shot would go a bit high but would mix up the pins to trip out the four pin late to double.  Kyle’s second shot would go high and leave a three pin, which he would pick up, and would go on to finish at 52.  Junior would get up in the tenth needing all three strike to win the match by 0.8 pins.  Junior’s first shot in the tenth would look good off his hand, but would again crush the pocket leaving a ringing ten pin.  Junior would miss the spare to finish at 30.8 and would see Kyle advance on the Divisional Semi-Finals.

The A Division Semi-Final match would go back and forth with each bowler struggling to get any strikes early in the match.  Kyle Ponzo fresh off his roll-off win would take advantage by getting a few strikes later in the match to take the lead but would open in the ninth to give Ben and Nyko a chance to win.  Nyko would start the tenth by getting nine and picking up his spare.  Nyko would get nine again on his fill to finish at 184.  Ben would get up needing all three in the tenth to give himself an outside chance, but would only get eight on his first ball and then go on to chop the spare attempt to finish at 163.  Kyle would get up in the tenth needing a mark and decent count.  Kyle’s first ball would hit the pocket a bit light leaving the 8-pin, but he would convert the spare and then strike on his fill to punch his ticket into the Finals with a score of 192.

The B Division Semi-Final would see Brandon and Lenny both struggle to get any carry on the pair.  Josh would open in the first frame, but would get lined up and ring off a 4-bagger for a lead that he wouldn’t give up.  Josh would go one to finish up the match with a score of 240 while Brandon would come in second with a 195 and narrowly edging out Lenny who would finish with a 192.

The C Division Semi-Final match would see all four bowlers on one pair this the Top 2 advancing to a second Semi-Final match.  This match would be a grind fest with all four bowlers struggling.  Steve Convirs would finish up the match with a score of 173.  Andy Situ would throw a 4-bagger to finish out the match to get to 240 and secure his spot in the second semi-final match.  It would come down to Darwin Hicks and Marcus Haley.  Darwin would finish up by opening up in the tenth to finish with a score of 201.  Marcus would be up next and would need to mark and get some decent count to advance to face Andy.  Marcus’ first shot in the tenth would hit a bit high in the pocket and leave a 9-pin.  Marcus would miss the spare conversion to finish at 196 to set up the second semi-final match between Darwin and Andy.

The 2nd C Division Semi-Final match would start off way different than the previous match as Andy and Darwin would each bowler striking at will.  It looked like it would come down to who would flinch first.  Andy would miss in the seventh frame by missing his mark just bit outside and wouldn’t convert on his spare attempt.  Darwin would take advantage and continue to strike.  Going into the tenth it looked like there was no stopping Darwin as he would finish up with a huge 284 game and Andy would finish up at 215.

The Final match would see both Darwin Hicks and Kyle Ponzo looking at winning their first AHT SFT title.  Josh Brown was looking at adding his second title and the projected $1,400.00 first place prize.  I say projected because for the second time in two tournaments we had a bowler that made it to Finals that was not in the Progressive Pot.  If you were unaware about the Progressive Pot, it’s paid out 100% to everyone that is in the Progressive Pot that made the quarterfinals.  So, depending on where Kyle would finish everyone that was in the Progressive Pot would see their checks increase a bit.

The Finals would see all three bowlers trying to quickly get lined up.  Kyle would get out to an early lead going nine-spare and the throwing a double in the second and third frames.  Josh Brown would spare strike spare in the first three frames.  Josh would open in the fourth with as he would leave the 4-10 split, which he was unable to convert.  Darwin would spare, then gutter-spare, strike to start off.  Darwin would open in the fourth frame also as he would leave the 4-6 split that he wouldn’t convert.  Kyle would continue to stay clean and midway through the match he would remain in the lead.

Josh Brown would start to get lined up as he would strike going into the sixth frame.  Darwin would also get a bit lined up as he would double in the sixth and seventh frames to get himself back into the match.  Kyle would start seeing a bit of transition as he would nine-spare in the seventh and leave the bucket (2-4-5-8) in the eighth.  Josh would get a few timely strikes in the eighth and would trip out the 6-10 late in the ninth frame to set himself up for the tenth.  Darwin would split in the eighth (2-7) that he would pick up and then get eight-spare in the ninth.  Kyle would nine-spare in the ninth frame to keep the match really close.

Going into the tenth frame we would see all three bowlers with a chance to win the match.  First up we would see Kyle lead off with a crushing strike.  Kyle’s second shot in the tenth would go a bit high leaving the 3-6-10, which he would convert, to finish at 217.  Darwin would get up for his first shot in the tenth and would go a bit high leaving a ten-pin.  Darwin would pick up the spare and then get nine on the fill to finish at 219 to squeak by Kyle by two pins.  Josh would get up and his first shot would look good off his hand, but leave a flat ten pin.  Josh would pick up the spare and then get eight on the fill to finish at 224.  This would give him his 2nd AHT SFT title and $1,450.00!  Darwin would finish in 2nd place and get $950.00 with Kyle in 3rd place and $300.00!

Thank you to everyone that came out and supported our event.  Also thank you to the staff at Bowlero Mesa for keeping the lanes going throughout the day.  A BIG thank you to Tawna McDonald and Michael Dragon for their hard work and keeping us going in a timely manner.

Good luck to everyone that is heading up to Las Vegas next weekend for the True Amateur Tournament (TAT).  We’ll be back in two weeks for our 2-squad standard event at Bowlero Via Linda.

FINALS - Kyle Ponzo vs. Josh Brown vs. Darwin Hicks