STRIKE ZONE

champs Jakob Butturff & Kevin Finkler, with Women's Series winner Crystalene Pineda

        In an historic day for JBT at Sunset Station's Strike Zone Bowling Center, Jakob Butturff and Kevin Finkler won the day's tournaments- but that doesn't even begin to tell the story.

        Bowling on the tricky WTBA Beijing pattern, Eric Hatchett began the scratch division stepladder finals with a close 195-189 win over Cortez Schenck, giving little indication of the fireworks about to get started.   Against #4 seed Derek Acuff, Eric started striking- and virtually never stopped.  He fired all twelve strikes for a 300-191 win over Acuff, one of only a few 300s in stepladder finals in JBT history (Acuff, of course, owns one of only two title match 300s ever bowled- at the time).  Hatchett then 'slowed down' to a 259 in the semifinals, easily getting by #2 Dallas Leong's 218, to advance to the title match.

         What happened next was eerily reminiscent of the Zack Hattori- Jordan Ferrer theatrics at Red Rock last season.  It would take a mammoth effort to keep up with Hatchett, but if anyone would figure to be up to the task, it would be top seed Jakob Butturff, who is now on one of the all-time rolls in JBT history.  Unlike the rest of the field, he tore up the pattern, 177 pins ahead of second place after game five at +202 (the cut was -111), and the ninth-best 8-game total in JBT history at +471, while Dallas remained in second at +76- that is unreal!  But could he stop Hatchett?  What if we first told you that Eric fired a 279 in the title match (for an 838 total his last three games)?   Unbelievably, Butturff countered that performance by firing a perfect 300 of his own to win the tournament 300-279 for his 14th career JBT title!  It's only the third 300 game in a title match in JBT history, it's the highest scoring match of any kind in JBT history, and an exclamation point on one of the most unforgettable wins in JBT history- huge congratulations to both bowlers!

        Kevin Finkler made some personal history by climbing the handicap stepladder for his first career JBT title.  He began with a 226-196 win over Jason Pappas, a winner at Santa Fe last month.  Kevin then defeated first-time finalist Teagan Smale 199-176, and followed with a 217-194 win over all-conference points leader Anthony Dang to reach the title game.

        Top seed Talon Hendrickson was looking to win his second JBT title of the season, but the talented Utah bowler did not have the right combination for the title match pair.  Finkler was able to coast to a 176-140 victory, and taste JBT victory for the first time.

        Crystalene Pineda won her first career JBT Women's Series title with a 194-137 win over collegiate bowler Courtney Schultz.  Girls need three Women's Series wins to qualify for the 2013 Girls TPC this summer.

        Thanks as always to the crew at Strike Zone for their usual great job hosting our Tour.  Why would you want to miss this?  Grab a schedule and come on out to our next event!