Gaines Wins Back-To-Back while Drew Myers Captures His 1st Bracket Title

The PJBT Began its 2015-2016 Postseason Events with our 16th Annual Bracket Rolloff Survivor Tournament.  This event is always a great event each year because its FREE!  Every bowler during our season who wins 1 or more brackets compete in a free event where we give away all the bracket money from the season.  All bowlers who participate pay no entry fee and everyone goes home with a scholarship.  Top prize of $500 in each division all the way down to a minimum of $15 for eliminated in Round 1.

For the first time ever, we had a back-to-back Winner.  Brian Gaines, who won the 2015 title in this event….followed it up with a victory in the 2016 edition.  Brian was one of our highest bracket winners on the year with 17 brackets.  He started the event in Round 6, the highest round you can advance to automatically.  In Round 6, we only had 15 Scratch bowlers remaining for 16 spots in the bracket.  All bowlers made the bracket….but the top seed for scratch got an additional BYE round.  Ironically, Gaines was the low bowler of the 15 remaining.  He shot 156 and 174 for 330.  His 2 game block seeded him 15th out of 16 bowlers.  He had the longest road to victory….but that didn’t stop him.  In the bracket matches, Gaines first took on #2 seed Tristan Leyen.  Gaines found his stride and shot 438 for 2 games and defeated Leyen, who shot 357.  In the Round of 8, Gaines took on #7 seed Alden Everett.  Again, Gaines dominated the match….winning 402-300.  This put Gaines in the semi-final match vs #3 Lawrence Bianco.  The final 2 rounds were 1 game matches….Gaines shot 258 and never game Bianco a chance, as he shot 160.  This win moved Gaines into the title match vs #1 Alex Glinski.  Glinski who had the bye early….and won his 1st 2 matches….put him against Gaines for the title.  This match was an epic battle.  Gaines started with the lead….Glinski battled back and had the lead late.  Glinski opened late and Gaines took advantage.  Gaines struck out for 227 and shut out Glinski for the title.  Brian Gaines earned the famous Bracket Trophy and a $500 scholarship for the title.

In Handicap, Drew Myers captured his 1st ever PJBT title in this event.  Myers had 5 bracket wins on the year and entered the event in Round 5.  He had one extra round to get to the victory.  In Round 5, 9 bowlers competed and the top 5 advanced to Round 6.  Myers placed 4th with a 2-game series of 379.  In Round 6, we had 24 bowlers total vying for 16 bracket spots.  Myers shot 371 and was seeded 12th in the 16 bowler bracket.  In the Round of 16, Myers took on #5 seed Logan Chappell.  This match was close to the end but Myers outlasted Chappell 394-369.  In the Round of 8, Myers took on #4 Jennifer Williams.  This match came down to the last shot!  In the end, Myers squeaked out a victory over Williams 363-358.  In the semi-final round, Myers took on #1 seed Breanne Hood.  In another nail-biter, Myers defeated Hood 209-193 to advance to the title match.  The title match was #12 Drew Myers and #7 Brendan Hunsicker.  Hunsicker had also won 3 matches coming into the title match.  This match was epic because we couldn’t declare a winner until the last ball.  Myers defeated Hunsicker 205-203 to take the title.  Myers won the famous bracket trophy and a $500 top scholarship prize.

We also had many scholarship winners in our bracket tourn sweeper event.