MIRA MESA

champs Jakob Butturff & Michael Ma

        Jakob Butturff just kept on rolling, while Michael Ma rebounded from a slide to land back in the winner's circle, in exciting JBT Southern California Conference action at Mira Mesa Lanes.

        Red-hot Wesley Low grabbed the scratch division qualifying lead, averaging just over 215 on a scorpion pattern that produced a low -87 cut.  He cruised through his first two rounds of 'oadotat' matchplay, where higher-seeded players need to only win one game to advance, while lower seeded players must win twice, putting a premium on qualifying totals even though scores are dropped for matchplay.  #2 Parker Brooks wasn't as lucky, falling in the round of eight to #5 Bobby Hornacek.

       In the semifinal matches, #8 Oscar Chan upset Low with two straight wins, while #7 Jakob Butturff stopped Hornacek in two straight, setting up a title match where #7 Jakob held the advantage, a rarity in 'oadotat'.  Oscar held a lead through six frames, but as we see so often on our Tour, trailing only seems to motivate Butturff, and a late triple combined with a disastrous ninth-frame big four from Chan resulted in a 180-170 comeback win for Jakob.  The 24th win of his JBT career ties Kris George for 5th place on our all-time titles list, with an amazing 18 of them coming this season!

         Samantha Potter earned the top seed after qualifying in the handicap division, but faltered in the round of eight matchplay, as #14 Emerald Colletti pulled off the upset.  #2 Ma fared better, cruising through two rounds to the semifinal.  In the final four, Ma stopped Colletti in the first game, while #8 Nick Condon defeated #11 Elias Haynes to set up the title match.

        In the first game of the title match, Michael stayed error-free, locking up the 202-196 over Condon win with a tenth frame spare.  The title is the third of Ma's career.

        Potter was also in the day's Women's Series title match, but fell to Ashley Dunn (who also finished sixth in the main tournament) 168-130, and Dunn claimed her first women's title of the season.

        Thanks as always to the crew at Mira Mesa for a great job hosting us.  Over $2,600 in scholarships was awarded this weekend alone- want in on all the fun?  Get on out to the next JBT event, it's as simple as that!