Sunday, December 30, 2024 – CENTRAL LANES BOWLING CENTER, Tamuning, Guam
Story courtesy of Rick Torres
The second day of the 2024 Pin Point Senior Bowler Grand Finals will be an event that will not soon be forgotten. Two gladiators of the bowling alley played an epic two-game match and when it was over, only one stood alone atop the other 23 competitors who came to try and claim the crown only one could win…and his name was Jim Pinaula. Pinaula took on his best friend and bowling mentor Manny Tagle and won the race to two victories to become the 2024 Pin Point Senior Bowler Grand Champion.
The 16 bowlers who made it past the qualifiers Saturday started their quest in four brackets as half would be eliminated in a one-game match to move on to meet the 8th to 5th place bowlers. Bracket A saw Henry Abasta and Nick Gutierrez over Alex Santiago and Rosita Tosco, and Bracket B’s Ruben Morellano and Jesse Eyoel ousted Frank San Agustin and Jess Muya. Bracket C had Yvonne Acda Joe Murphy fall to Bill Roberto and Cris Leal. Finally, Art Dulla and Tony Sobrevilla moved past Rick Torres and Ray Manibusan in the D bracket.
The winners from the first round now face the undaunting task of having to beat the higher seeds they face twice in order to advance. The second-round bracket play began with 5th seed Mike Sanchez victorious over Abasta and Guiterrez in bracket A. Ruben Morellano and Jesse Eyoel were defeated by 7th seed Edgar Nalundasan in bracket B. Bracket C winner Cris Leal upset 8th seed Jess Meno and Roberto. Bracket D ended when Pinaula stopped Dulla’s and Sobrevilla’s title quest.
The Elite 8 finalists now continued as 2nd seed Manny Tagle ended Sanchez’s title attempt
in bracket A. Nalundasan upset teammate and 4th seed Shiela Bangs in two games to advance in bracket B. Leal continued his title search by upsetting the hard-throwing 4th seed Mike Duenas in the C bracket with a two-game victory. Pinaula finished the big upset run with two straight hard-fought wins over multiple title-holder and top seed Zaldy Ponce.
The top four remaining bowlers created an amazing tournament fact. All four are teammates on the Friday Night Senior League and now face each other for the coveted title. Tagle and Nalundasan won monthly titles in 2024, while Leal and Pinaula did not. This made for a remarkable afternoon in the semi-finals.
Pinaula wasted no time with a narrow 219- 217 over lower seed Leal to advance to the championship. Tagle rolled over teammate Nalundasan 215-189 to earn the second spot in the finals.
The championship format was a race to two wins to get the title. Pinaula drew first blood by taking advantage of open frames by Tagle in the first and fourth frames to garner a 212-182 triumph in the opening match. The second game was a strikefest as Pinaula mustered up enough energy left in his painful right arm to roll 7 strikes to Tagle’s 4 slammers enroute to a whopping 263-201 win and the crown along with $2,500 cash.
It was a very satisfying end to a year of struggling in the past twelve-monthly tournaments by Pinaula. What made this contest sweeter for all 24 participants was the sponsor Pin Point Pro Shop awarding a free bowling ball to help soften the loss to go along with a cash prize.
You can’t end the 2024 season any better than that!
Guam Bowling 