This weekend the 9-Tap Tour went down to Bowlero Lanes - Tacoma for the 1st Quarter Championship.  We had a total of 209 entries that placed 42 bowlers on the Cash List, that led to a HUGE payout of $15,459.00 for the weekend.

The 9-Tap Jackpot was not seriously threatened at all over the two days.  Joe Ferrara hit the Front 4 Taps, Saturday afternoon, and it held the rest of the way.  Joe received the $100 consolation prize.  The 9-Tap Jackpot got a big jump to $4,628.00 which will kick in the Middle-7 for next week's tournament. 

 

Saturday saw on target scoring after the 1st Squad, but as the temperature warmed up outside, the scoring warmed up inside.  In all, we had 6 scores over 1,000, including Jessica Trinidad-Hill shooting 1,075 to win a new Storm Bowling Ball of her choice.  Jessica's score also was the top qualifying score for the tournament, and will receiving the Top Qualifier Jacket. 

Sunday, the last chance squads, the scores moderated but we still had a Goldilocks cut line of 930.  After cutting down the 42 qualifying bowlers down to 16 bowlers with two Monster Rounds the competition heated up.

The highlight match of the Sweet 16 Round was between two friends and 9-Tap veterans Dan Watts (more on him later), and Magic Bristol, which came down to the 10th frame.  Dan beat Magic 241-231 as the closest match of the round. 

The next round saw a couple close matches.  Tim Fierro struggled in the middle of his game, and thought he lost until Tyler Vallala threw a big split in the 10th, with Tim squeaking by 194-189.  The same thing happened to Ray Sedeno, who threw a pocket shot in the 10th and it ended up being a split, losing to Don Becker 215-196.  Ray said afterwards that he was using his money for his wife's Pearl funeral fund. 

That brought us to the Final Four with Tim Fierro against Dave Pickering, and Dan Watts against Don Becker.  Dave and Don were going for their first title each.  Dave had been very consistent all day shooting in the 230-245 range, but in the semifinal, Tim Fierro almost got his 2nd 300 game of the weekend beating Dave 315-245.  Dan and Don were also shooting well on the other pair, but a couple unfortunate balls by Don, and timely strikes by Dan led to him winning 240-202.  Dave collected $448.00 ($10 pro pot), and Don received $598.00 for 3rd place.  

That led to our final between Dan Watts and Tim Fierro which ended up being pretty dramatic.  Both bowlers had  their struggles early including identical 4-6-7-10 splits in the 4th frame.  Thanks to the splits both had scores on in the 90's going into the 7th.  Then Dan strung 4 strikes together, while sadly, Tim was snake bit getting an 8-10 split on a really nice ball in the 10th, with the final score of 204-141. 

This is Dan Watts 5th championship, and first since 2018 (when he won 3 titles that year).  Dan wore his Dexter The 9 shoes while rolling his Storm Summit ball to the championship drilled by Matt Pettinger at Down Range Pro Shop at JBLM.  Dan said it was really tough bowling against his friends through the bracket rounds.  Dan also said that the last pair the finals were on, was very tough and that Tim got some unlucky breaks but always enjoys bowling with Tim.  Dan, retired Army, will be using his $2,706.00 for a family outing down the road.  Congratulations Dan! 

The above mentioned, Tim Fierro, did not have a bad weekend at all.  Tim had a weekend of seconds, qualifying the 1st squad on Saturday in 2nd place, then bowled the 2nd squad, going for the bowling ball, and took 2nd to his lane mate, Jessica, improving his score and shooting a 300.  Tim collected a $1,202.00 check for taking 2nd place, plus won another $420.00 in the scratch pot for an excellent weekend for him.