This weekend’s event was at Bowlero Mesa and we had a great turnout! We would see 136 total entries (97 qualifying and 39 economy parlays), had 40 prize winners, a 1 in 3.4 cash ratio and paid out over $7,750.00 in main and side event prize funds. The players bowled on a very tough 38ft USBC Open Championships Team pattern that played very tight as the day went on. The key to this pattern was to leave makeable spares and not try to get into too much trouble. Those that were able to pick up their spares and get a few pins above average were able to advance to the quarterfinals.
We had Riley Dempsey as our SFT Coach available for the day. So Riley is a resource that is open to all bowlers that are bowling the event. If you had any questions regarding how to attack the pattern or which equipment would be good to use, then it would’ve been beneficial to get some advice from him. The only time that bowlers would have to pay for the Coach is if they were going to agree to get a quick lesson to work on any physical game or see how their ball reaction was on the actual pattern. Going forward we hope to have either Riley or Cedric Bell available to coach at future events. We would see more bowlers take advantage and see good results from the coaching. We hope to continue to offer this great resource so that more bowlers are able to take advantage in the upcoming events.
We want to welcome a couple of new bowlers to the SFT AHT Family from this weekend. Jalynn Peterson and Kyle Webster both bowled in their first tournament this weekend! It’s good to see that we still have new bowlers coming out to give our tournament club a try. We hope you all enjoyed yourself, and we hope to see you again soon!
We had a couple of parlay power players this weekend in Brian Waugh, Brandon JohnsonKroman and Jack Haines. All three bowlers were able to turn their $25 into a quarterfinals check and Jack even had a chance at the $1,100.00 first place prize, but more on that later. We also want to congratulate everyone who made it to their first quarterfinals or their first quarter finals in quite a while. Congrats to Michael Taylor, Lee Fitzgerald, Anthony James, Aaron Mendoza, Nicholas Tejada, Brian Waugh and Brandon Loss! Also congrats to Dan Friedline for winning the Momma’s Mystery Pot, with a 139 game, for $500.00!!! The winner of the free plastic bowling ball, with an option to upgrade to any Track high performance ball for $85.00, was June Hatfield.
The quarterfinals were bowled on the fresh oil pattern and it seemed like going into the third game, most of the bowlers had a chance to make the cut to the Semi-Finals. With the great turnout, we would cut down to the Top 3 in each Division with the cut ration being 1 in 3 and all the Divisions having at least 10 bowlers.
In the A Division the #1 seed would be Sean Casey (+59) and he would have face off with #2 seed Brian Waugh (+43) and #3 seed Ben Perry (+32). The B Division #1 seed would be Raymond Stead (+114) and he would take on #2 seed Anthony James (+74) and #3 seed Brandon Bailey (+45). The C Division #1 seed was Stacie Huglin (+92) versus #2 seed Edward Lee (+76) and #3 seed Jack Haines (+53). The advantage of each #1 seed player is that they are able to pick the pair of lanes that they want their match to take place. Also another advantage is that they get to choose the order of which player would start.
The A Division semi-final match would see all three bowlers battle back and forth. It would come down to the tenth frame with each bowler needing to strike in order to advance to the Finals. Ben Perry would finish up the match first getting 6 on his first ball in the tenth and was able to pick up the spare. Ben would get nine on the fill to finish at 203. Brian Waugh would get up and leave a single pin, but miss on his spare attempt to finish at 177. This would come down to #1 seed Sean Casey needing to double in the tenth to advance. Sean would get up and fire his first shot down the lane, but the ball would check early and go through the nose leaving the 6-7-10 split, which he wasn’t able to convert and finish the match at 188.
The B Division semi-final match would start off a bit rough with all three bowlers trying to get lined up quickly. Brandon Bailey would get it together to string a 4-bagger to get the lead, but a split in the eight would slightly open the door for Anthony and Raymond. Raymond would find a line to give him a chance to get back into the match, but had already dug himself too big of a hole to get out of. Anthony would struggle a bit, but was able to make his spares to stay in the match until the eighth frame in which he would leave a nasty split and get three on the spare attempt. Going into the tenth frame Brandon Bailey would finish first by getting eight spare and seven on the fill to finish the match at 222. Anthony would finish his tenth with all strikes to finish at 203 and Raymond would finish up at 188.
The C Division Semi-Final match would be a close match and it would all come down to the ninth and tenth frames. Stacie would finish out the ninth with a missed 10-pin to give Jack and Ed a chance to catch up. Ed would seven spare while Jack would strike in the ninth. Going into the tenth frame, Stacie would finish the match first and would redeem her missed 10-pin in the ninth by picking up the 10-pin spare attempt in the tenth. She would get nine on her fill attempt and finish at 202. Ed Lee would finish out his tenth with an eight spare and strike for 204. Jack would get up in the tenth only needing a mark to win and he would throw two strikes in a row to seal the win, with a 222, and punch his ticket into the Finals.
Going into the Final match we would see all three bowlers making their Finals debut and all looking for their first title along with the $1,100 first place prize. So it would all come down to who could minimize their mistakes and able to make spares. Jack Haines was making a run after making the quarterfinals with his parlay entry. Jack had an amazing run as his very first game of the parlay was a 97! He quickly was able to overcome that and post two really good games in order to win the parlay for his Division. Brandon Bailey has been bowling in the club for the last two years and was looking to break out and get his first win. Brandon has been improving and finally all the hard work on his game was paying off. Ben has been bowling our events for the past few months and also been looking to break out with some success. Ben is a two handed lefty that throws the ball pretty good and was looking on capitalizing on his run. All three bowlers were the #3 seed in the Semi-Finals and I think this was the first time that all of the #3 seeds were able to make the Final match.
The Final match would see Ben and Brandon start off filling frames as they would try to get lined up. Jack would start off the match a bit slow by opening on his first two frames. Jack would overcome his nerves and start to put together a few spares and was able to double in the fifth and sixth frames to get himself back into the match. Brandon would split in the fourth and chop his spare attempt in the fifth to dig himself into a hole. Ben would put up a 3-bagger in the fifth, sixth and seventh frames to try and get a lead. Jack would stay on his heels by pick up spares in the seventh and eighth. Brandon would miss a few single pin spares to take himself out of the match and he would finish the match, in 3rd place, with a score of 153. It would come down to the ninth and tenth with Ben and Jack going neck and neck. Ben would finish the match first going eight spare in the ninth and doubling up in the tenth. Ben’s fill ball in the tenth would go a bit left and miss the head pin giving him a six count to finish at 233. Jack would get up and strike in the ninth and double in the tenth to give himself a chance to win the match by getting a mark on his next two shots. His 2nd shot in the tenth would crossover and Brooklyn leaving him the 3-6 to pick up for the win. Jack’s spare attempt would go a bit right and he would chop the 3-6 to finish in a tie with Ben at 233.
We would go into a ninth and tenth frame roll off with each bowler’s handicap pro-rated for the last two frames. Jack would start the roll-off with a seven count, leaving the 1-3-6, which he was able to spare. Ben would throw his first shot of the roll-off and get nine spare. Ben would strike in the tenth and his 2nd shot would get a bit left and come crashing late into the pocket leaving the 1-3-4-7. Ben was able to pick off the 1-3 and finish at 39. Jack would get up for his tenth frame needing to mark and good count to win. Jack’s first ball would go a bit high and leave the 3-9. Jack would need to pick up the spare and get an 8 count on his fill to win. Jack would try to hook at the spare and his ball would go a bit long to the right picking off the 9-pin to finish at 30.75. This would give Ben Perry his first AHT SFT title and the $1,100 first place prize. Congrats to Jack Haines on 2nd place and also to Brandon Bailey on 3rd place.
Thank you to everyone that came out to support the event and make it so successful. We’ll be at AMF Chandler next Sunday for our Track Match Play fun event. Hope to see you all there!!!
FINALS - Ben Perry vs. Brandon T. Bailey vs. Jack Haines
