CACTUS BOWL

champs Russ Oviatt & Chad Alexander, with runner-up Daryus Alo

        Russ Oviatt and Chad Alexander claimed JBT titles in exciting Arizona Conference action at Cactus Bowl in Tucson.   

        El Paso bowler Andrew Esparza began the scratch division stepladder finals with a 216-172 win over Aaron Yamamoto.  Ben Canfield then blasted a big game to defeat Esparza 154-192.  Russ Oviatt then came up with a rare Dutch 200 in a 200-184 win over Canfield to advance to the title match.

        Jakob Butturff used a 278 closing game in the semifinals to leap into the tournament lead, and managed to save two 'mulligans' for the title match.  However, Oviatt had been ultra conservative and had all four do-overs he earned in the unique format throughout the day.  He must have figured Jakob would put up a big number because he used his first mulligan on an 8-count first frame.  That played a big part in the end, because the game got very bizarre at the end.  On four in a row, Russ left a bucket and used muligan #3 only to get worse with a 6-7-10, which he again mulliganed, and ended up with an even worse 2-8-10, which he missed to open the door for Butturff.  As he almost always does, Jakob took advantage with a double, but an 11th frame bucket of his own, with only two on the fill, gave Russ a chance to fill 20 in the tenth to tie- but he'd have to do it on the lane he completely lost last time.  Somehow, Oviatt dug deep and struck on the first ball, ensuring a 219-211 win, and a hard earned fifth career JBT title.

        Elijah Melchor, already a winner this season at Tri City, began the quest for another handicap title with a 193-190 win over Jarred Starr-Moncayo.  Melchor then got past Celeste Valdez 249-211, but fell in a tight seminal match to Chad Alexander 207-201, and Chad moved on to the title match.

        Top seed Daryus Alo again proved any age can do well with us, as the talented 8 year-old stayed steady all day and grabbed the tournament lead after game eight.  However, he struggled a bit in the title match, and the veteran Alexander was able to take advantage, winning the match 218-181 for a long awaited first career JBT title.

        Valdez avenged her stepladder loss with a 177-152 win over Abby Franklin to capture the day's Women's Series title, the first of the season for Celeste.

        Thanks as always to Dale and the crew at Cactus for a great job hosting us.  Want in on all the excitement?  Just come on out to the next JBT event, that's all you have to do!