Althouse & Bennett Break Thru for Titles in Bill O’Neill Kickoff Weekend Tournament

The PJBT continues to come down the home stretch of our 17th season with a Regular Season Singles Event at AMF Bristol Pike Lanes in Croydon (Philadelphia), PA.  This event was coordinated in an effort to promote the big event for youth at the center on the following day.  On Sunday, May 1st, Pro Bowler Bill O’Neill held his youth scholarship tournament.   Our event was the standard singles format and conducted on the house oil condition.  We had 31 bowlers take to the lanes, including 20 in scratch.

In Scratch, Daniel Althouse finally broke thru and captured his 1st career PJBT title.  Althouse, a regular on the tour, has made the top 5 in many events this year before but just couldn’t make it to the top of the mountain.  That curse ended on this day.  Althouse began qualifying by shooting games of 223, 196, 261, 218, and 224.  After 5 games, Althouse stood at +122 and was seeded 4th entering match play.  The top 10 cut for Scratch was +32 for 5 games.  In match play, Althouse made his move to solidify his spot in the finals.  He went 3-0 in Match Play shooting scratch games of 212, 205, and 224.  After 8, Althouse was seeded 3rd and he only trailed 2nd seed Dave Callahan and leader Walter Tomlin.  In the finals, Althouse began in Game 2 facing #4 seed Aidan D’Souza.  Althouse took command of this match and won it early.  Althouse defeated D’Souza 237-162.  In the semi-final, Althouse took on Callahan.  This match came down to the last shot but Callahan did not strike out to win….and Althouse survived 198-193.  This advanced Althouse to the title match vs Walter Tomlin.  Althouse kept the strike train going and never looked back.  Althouse defeated Tomlin in the title match 242-212 and took home the $200 top scholarship prize and winner’s plaque.

In Handicap, we had a light field on this day of just 11 bowlers.  That didn’t stop our youth from creating good competition.  Kolby Bennett took home his 3rd career PJBT title.  Bennett’s last title came almost 2 years ago in the 2014 Edition of the PA PJBT Masters Event.  Bennett, who entered the event with a 199 average and 0 handicap, shot qualifying games of 193, 202, 211, 267, and 202.  Bennett stood at +75 and was our tournament leader after qualifying.  Top 8 advanced to match play….with cut being -24 after 5 games.  In Match Play, Bennett goes 2-1 with scores of 199, 190, and 245.  Bennett maintained his lead at 23 pins entering the stepladder final.  In the final match, Bennett took on #2 seed bowler Bree Binkowski.  This title match came down to the last shot.  Binkowski needed a mark in the 10th frame to beat Bennett.  On our first shot, she left the 3-10 baby split.  She needed to convert to win.  She chopped off the 3 pin on the 2nd shot and Bennett won the title on the bench.  Bennett defeated Binkowski 195-193 and won the $200 top scholarship prize and winner’s plaque.

No honor scores were bowled this week and the Perfect 300 Pot will carry over to next week.