Sunday, June 30, 2019 – CENTRAL LANES BOWLING CENTER, Tamuning, Guam
The top two seeds in the Guam Senior Bowlers Association (GSBA) monthly tournament were in the championship round for a fourth straight month. Last month GSBA president John Salas won the title. This month GSBA vice-president Rick Torres needed a little bit of luck to slip past second seed Marie Velasco in two straight games 187-168 and 218-205 with handicap after losing the first game 207-197 in the best of three series.
The Sunday shootout began with sixth seed Alex Kloulubak over twelfth seed Nick Gutierrez 240-173 with handicap while tenth seed Rick Ada beat eighth seed Zaldy Ponce 183-154 with handicap in the even number bracket.
The odd number bracket found fifth seed Lito Teodoro taking out eleventh seed Virgil Toledo 249-214. In a couple’s duel, seventh seed Nori Catbagan defeated his wife Josie Catbagan 197-144 with handicap.
The second round saw Rick Ada upsetting Alex Kloulubak 194-151. Nori Catbagan stopped Lito Teodoro’s title quest 188-152.
The quarterfinals started with Liz Langas’ narrow victory over Rick Ada 190-187. Fourth seed Rose Tosco upset Nori Catbagan 237-199 to move into the semifinals.
Top seed Torres played a clean game in the semi-finals with no errors along with some help through a couple of open frames by Tosco to win 215-198. Langas on the other semi-final forced a second game by winning the first of the “lower seed must beat higher seed twice” format 225-198. But her effort fell short in the second game as errors resulted in a 191-185 victory by Velasco to advance to the championship “first to two wins” format.
Velasco drew first blod by striking out in the tenth frame of the first game to take the match 207-197. Torres clawed back with both competitors having a hard time putting marks on the board and resulted in a narrow 187-168 win for Torres to even the match. The third game was a replica of the first game in the match with the leads changing hands till an open in the ninth frame by Velasco put Torres in position to win his first local title n over a decade.
The next monthly tournament will take place Sunday, July 28, at 11AM. Under the new rules, the tournament qualifier will be based on the participant’s Friday Night Senior League scores which shall count as a tournament entry. The entry is based on a pin over average plus bonus points added to determine the top twelve finalists’ points ranking. A bowler can enter more qualifiers to make the top twelve shootout round. The top four tournament finalists compete for the top four monetary prizes that is based on the number of entries.
The top twelve bowlers will be announced and/or posted on the Friday prior to the tournament on Sunday. For complete information, see the tournament rules posted on the bowling counter or see Manny Tagle at the Friday Night Senior League.
Story provided to the Guam Bowling Congress by Guam Senior Bowlers Association.
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