AZ BAKER TEAM SHOOTOUT

champs Taylor King, Kyle King, Randy Cote, Cameron Smith, & Bryanna Caldwell

        A dominant-looking team on paper had plenty of competition and didn't make it easy at all, but in the end came out on top in a fun and exciting night of action in the AZ Baker Team Shootout, hosted by Glenfair Lanes.

        After 12 games of Baker Team competition, "Virtue Bowling Supply" (Curtis Lindeman, Oscar Chan, Derek Acuff, Alexis Atkin, and SFT-AHT director Craig Spencer) claimed the lead, as one of only two teams to average over 200 in the demanding format.  They along with teams 2-4 earned a one round bye, while seeds 5-12 played in best 2-of-3 first round matches, which all went according to seed.  Virture couldn't get out of their first match though, as #5 "Always Late", featuring PBA and JBT stars Michael Haugen and Jakob Butturff pulled off a 2-0 sweep.

    Down to the final four, Always Late (also including Megan Carlson, Kyle Duster, and Jacob Camacho) defeated #4 Dang... ASU (Anthony Dang, Ben Canfield, Shane Valleau, Jory Koizumi, David Sevier), while #2 "Randy's One-Handed House Hacks" (Kyle King, Taylor King, Randy Cote, Cameron Smith, and Bryanna Caldwell)" swept #7 "U Mad Bro?" (Keith Fung, Chris Ingram, Matt Villegas, Robert Atherton, Aaron Yamamoto), completing the match with a 4-9 conversion from Kyle for the win.

    The title match had too many amazing bowlers (with an unreal 152 JBT titles among them) not to be a thriller, and it lived up to the hype, with the teams splitting their first two games to force a third, deciding game.  In that match, Randy's jumped out to the lead, and a late rally by Always Late turned out indeed to be too late.   With the 218-203 final score, Kyle picked up his 61st career JBT title, Cameron his 37th, Taylor King her 6th, Randy his 9th, and Bryanna became the only female in the ten-title club with her 10th win.

    Ben Canfield won the special "9 or better" event during qualifying, outlasting Curtis Lindeman for a $50 bonus.

    Thanks not only to Glenfair for a great job hosting, but to all the JBT alumni and other adults who took time out of their Saturday night to join today's youth bowlers for one of the most fun events on the JBT calendar!