STRIKE ZONE

champs Chase Nadeau & Jeremy Cardines

        Chase Nadeau and Jeremy Cardines outlasted a tough matchplay round to capture titles in exciting JBT Mojave Conference action at Sunset Station's Strike Zone.

        Cortez Schenck fired 535 for his last two qualifying games to grab the tournament lead, but fell in best 2-of-3 matchplay to #9 Jordan Katz.  Katz then fell to Chase Nadaeu 244-162 in the semifinals to reach the title match.  On the other side of the bracket, Nick Pollak rolled past Alex Watanabe and previous day's champ Kyle Duster to advance to play Nadeau for the title.

        The title game was very well bowled and came down to the tenth frame.  Pollak's late strike string forced Chase to double to win, on the lane where he had just gone 2-8-10 and 8-10 in the previous frames.  Nadeau was able to come up with the clutch double, winning the match 228-224, good for the 4th title of his JBT career.

        In the handicap division, Teagan Smale gained the top seed with a huge qualifying round burst, then found himself in the match of the day against Talon Hendrickson.  They tied their tiebreaker game at 226, and then Talon won the two-frame rolloff to advance.  Cardines then finally stopped Hendrickson 224-198 in the semifinal to move on to the tile match.  On the bottom half of the matchplay bracket, #2 Joe Gerencser was also upset, by #7 Kevin Mette, and Kevin kept the momentum going with a 226-218 squeaker over Nathan Hanuscin to reach his first title match.

        In the all-two-hander finale, Jeremy, who continues to improve with his new left-handed delivery, stayed in control the whole time.  A late string by Kevin wasn't enough, and Cardines' 239-208 win was good for the third title of his JBT career.

        Alexis Atkin, the all-conference female points leader, continued her roll with a 196-164 win over top qualifier Randi Speiler to capture the day's Women's Series event.

        Thanks as always to the crew at Strike Zone for hosting our event.   Want in on all teh fun and excitement?  Come on out to our next event, it's that simple!