Dylan Zimmerman & Josh Honish Outlast Large Field at Berks Lanes

The PJBT continued its 16th Season of Tournaments with a Regular Season Singles Event on October 4th at Berks Lanes.  This event was a house shot event.  On this day, we had a near season high 96 bowlers come out to bowl, including 56 bowlers in Scratch and 40 in Handicap.

In Scratch, Dylan Zimmerman, of Harrisburg, PA, won his 1st Scratch PJBT Title.  This title was Dylan’s 3rd career title but he had not won since April 2008 when he won an event in the Handicap Division.  Zimmerman was one of many bowlers who had a great day on the lanes in this event.  During qualifying, Zimmerman shot 205-248-204-276-220 for 1153 or +153.  Zimmerman stood 7th after qualifying.  He trailed our dominant tournament leader Christian Francis….who was +300 after 5 games.  Francis averaged 260 for qualifying.  22 Bowlers of 56 advanced to match play…cut was +55 which was broken with a tie for last spot.  In Match Play, Zimmerman won 2 of his 3 matches and propelled himself into 3rd place entering the stepladder finals.  Zimmerman only trailed leader Christian Francis and 2nd seed bowler Alex Glinski.  In the stepladder finals….Zimmerman took on Sarah Kirch in Game 2.  Kirch had just come off of a win vs Kurtis Stidd in Game 1 of the finals 227-191.  Zimmerman defeated Kirch 244-206 to advance to the semi-final match vs Glinski.  In the semi-final, we saw an epic match between Zimmerman & Glinski.  Glinski finished the match first and posted a 225 score.  Zimmerman knew he needed to double and get 9 pins in the fill bill to win.  He struck twice and then left a 4 pin (9 count) on fill shot to win by 1 pin.  Zimmerman took the match 226-225.  This result set up the title match between Zimmerman and Christian Francis.   In the title match, Francis had trouble getting lined up on the right lane….causing him to struggle to string strikes.  The match was even until around the 7th frame when Zimmerman ran off 4 strikes in a row….and never looked back.  Zimmerman defeated Francis in the title match 230-201 to take the title.  Zimmerman won the $250 top scholarship prize and awards from Crown Trophy.

In Handicap, Joshua Honish, of Pottsville, PA, won his 2nd career PJBT title and 1st of this season.  Honish got his 1st career title last year in the doubles event 4/26/15.  This was his 1st ever singles title.  Honish, who entered the event with a 170 average….shot scratch games of 232, 223, 201, 182, and 181 during qualifying.  After 5 games, he sat at +144 or 1144 pin total.  He sat in 3rd place behind tournament leader Nathan Buckwalter and 2nd seed Deron Gilbert.  The top 16 bowlers advanced to match play with the cut being +26.  In Match play, Honish won all 3 of his matches and shot some high games.  His 3 game block propelled him into the tournament lead entering the stepladder finals.  In the title match, Honish took on 2nd seed Deron Gilbert.  This match was another exciting and close match to the end.  Gilbert forced Honish to strike in the 10th win and he did.  Honish defeated Gilbert in the title match 194-189.  Honish took home the title and the $250 top scholarship prize with awards from Crown Trophy.

Congratulations also on this day to Kaitlyn Heckman.  She bowled our only honor score of the day….shooting 299 game in match play.  No one hit the 300 Pot – which carries to next week at $108.