DESERT OPEN

champs Lanndyn Carnate & Kyle Lawrence

        Lanndyn Carnate wrapped up a wonderful JBT career, while Kyle Lawrence kicked his just-beginning career into high gear, capturing titles at the Desert Open, hosted by BRC Zone Glendale.

        After five games each on the very challenging Wolf, Badger, and Bear patterns, the top sixteen bowlers in each division began head to head matchplay, playing best 3-of-5 down to the final four.  As the top scratch seed, Carnate chose the Bear pattern for matchplay, and it looked to be a bad choice as he fell down 0-2 to #16 Alex Watanabe.  Carnate won the next three though to squeeze out the 3-2 win.  The only other round one match to go the distance was #2 seed Cameron Smith eliminating his friend and fellow aging-out bowler #15 Mark Myers in an emotional finale.

        In round two #7 Cortez Schenck ended Smith's career with a grindout 3-2 win, #11 Tyler Boe beat #14 Shane Valleau 3-1, #12 Kyle King stopped #4 Riley Dempsey 3-0, and Carnate swept recent TPC champ Bobby Hornacek 3-0.  Down to single-game semifinal matches, Boe beat Schenck in a battle of our younger scratch stars 205-171, while in the 'old man' side of the bracket, Carnate edged King 155-151, setting up the title game.

        Boe, yet another of the talented Pac NW bowlers that have dominated our major events recently, had the better look going into the title game, but Carnate drew upon all his experience in the match, getting the job done with a 204-183 win.  He finishes off his career with his third major in two months, having won the Summer Masters and AZ Invitational since June.

        In the handicap division, Rachel Berg bowled great for two days to capture the #1 seed, but #16 Joe Gerencser pulled off the round one upset, beating her 3-1 to advance.  Two other matches went the distance, with #7 Stan Bunce beating #10 Kristen Lee, and #2 Lawrence edging #5 Crystalene Pineda in five very close games. 

        #8 Brooke Martinez stopped Gerencser's run 3-1 in round two.  In other matches, #4 Jake Tucker defeated #5 Becki Meils, #3 Kayla Goad swept #6 Keith Fung, and Lawrence stopped Bunce 3-1.  Down to single game semifinal matches, Lawrence beat Goad 219-207, while Martinez stopped Tucker 170-163 to advance to the title match.

     Martinez was looking to continue a red-hot 2013, while Lawrence was looking to join his brother Connor as JBT champs.  The match remained close the whole way, but a tenth frame open from Martinez gave Lawrence the margin he needed, as his own tenth frame open didn't matter.  The 188-182 final gave Kyle the first title of his JBT career.

        Big thanks to Chelsea Zemelka and the crew at Zone Glendale for hosting our event, which awarded over $3,000 in scholarships to under-21 bowlers of all averages and ages!