Our season opening event this weekend was at AMF Mesa and we had a decent turnout. We had a total of 63 entries (48 qualifying and 15 economy parlays) with 16 prize winners and a 3.94:1 cash ratio, paying out $2,900 in prize funds. The players bowled on the 35 ft Boardwalk V2 oil pattern that provided a medium scoring pace throughout the event, but those who had a look really took advantage on some games.
Micah Coleman hit the Momma’s Mystery Score after a long cold streak with a score of 151 for $500! Your winner of the drawing for the free plastic ball, with the option to upgrade to any high-performance Track ball for $99.00, was Eddie Lucas!
There were 11 competitors who made it to the cashers round, plus two exemptions used by Chase Rohlik and Alex Olson. Coming out of the A Division would be Jake Howell (+76) and Drew Merrell (+45). Their match would be a close match the entire way, with both bowlers striking a ton. Drew would end up opening in the 10th to allow Jake to get the first hit in the 10th to move on to the finals, which he was able to do and secured the win, 237-233. The B Division would see Nykolas Walker (+63) and he would advance straight to the finals. Coming out of the C Division would be Gunanr Wilson (+168), shooting the largest set of the entire tournament and he would move on straight to the finals.
We would have a battle in the finals between two non-winners, Nykolas and Jake, and a one-time champ, Gunnar. The finals would start off with Gunnar taking a slight early lead, where Jake and Nykolas could really not get anything to connect. However, Nykolas would string a couple strikes together late in the game to slowly diminish Gunnar’s lead. Going into the 10th frame, Jake was mathematically shutout. Nykolas would get 20 in the 10th which would force Gunnar to get good count. Everyone gasped when he threw his shot as he would get 3 of the left, now making the job slightly harder as he would need 5 pins to secure the win. Gunnar would step up and get 6, which would be just enough to claim his 2nd title and the $1,040 top prize! The final scores were 236 (Wilson) - 233 (Walker) - 204 (Howell).
Thank you to everyone that came out this weekend to bowl our tournament. We can’t run tournaments like these without you guys! Thanks to Shawn and the entire staff at AMF Mesa for having us out this weekend. As always, if you have any feedback, please let us know how we can further accommodate bowlers and improve our tournaments. We’ll be back in two weeks at Bowlero Via Linda for another standard 2-squad event. Hope to see ya there!
Video Link To Final Match: https://youtube.com/live/0CvJQm6eRb8
