The 2010 Mens Citizen Masters is down to the final eight Bowlers. The Finals will be hosted by Falcon Lanes starting this Saturday at Noon. But before we look ahead to the finals, lets take a look back at some exciting moments from this past weekends matches at Cedar House Lanes. The string killer would be busy this weekend as 6 different bowlers would have the first nine strikes in a game during their matches with Brandon Mettler doing it twice on Sunday.
Let's start with the early matches on Saturday in the Losers Bracket. Chuck Ostrander would lead 1997 Runner-Up Paul Roche by 24 pins after two games but Roche would make a run winning game three 205 to 185 to fall three pins short of victory 593-590. Brock Cordway would lead Mike Sheehan by 13 pins after two games and battled throughout the third game eventually defeating Sheehan 673-671. Bob Kreydatus and Bruce Freeman would tie with a 554 series after 3 games. Not to be outdone, Jon Swanson and Pete Bommersbach would also tie with a 603 series forcing a one game roll-off in each match. Kreydatus would waste no time rolling the first eight strikes to eliminate Freeman 236-160. Swanson and Bommersbach would battle right down to the last ball with Swanson winning 211-206. In the winners bracket division, John Ashby was forced to pick the 6-10 spare on the last ball of the match to send Jeff Furman to the Losers Bracket 628-627. Furman would come back strong on Sunday defeating Chris Fleming and Jerry Locastro before facing Darrin Emperato. Darrin would trail Jeff by 1 pin after 2 games but fired a strong last game of 268 to eliminate Jeff Furman 699-632.
On Sunday In what was probably the best match of the day and one of the highest scoring matches of the tournament, Defending champion Steve Suslik would face Brandon Mettler on Saturday in the Losers Bracket. The match was close from the beginning as Mettler would take game one 225-224. Both bowlers would come out strong in game two with Mettler rolling 10 strikes in a row to shoot a 288. Suslik would answer each shot and fire a 278 second game to trail by 11 pins after 2 games. The third game would see the pressure and intensity pick up as both Mettler and Suslik would have an open frame early in game three. With a clutch strike late in the game, Mettler would put the pressure on Suslik. Steve answered with a strike on the first ball in the tenth. Needing to strike again to win Suslik would fire a good shot but the stubborn ten pin would be left standing sending Mettler on to another match with a 715-708 victory. It was exciting and nervous to watch. Jerry Locastro would also find himself in a very close match, trailing by 38 pins after 2 games but would close that deficit to 6 by the 9 frame. Locastro would mark in the tenth while his opponent Jamie Cordway would end with a split losing 658-662. Jeff Matty, Kevin Ashby, Jeff Furman, Darrin Emperato, Steve Crozier and Gary Feldman Jr would also win their matches on Sunday morning with Feldman shooting a 733 series. Mettler, Kevin Ashby, Furman and Emperato would all win their second matches with Furman and Ashby shooting 700 series.
The Winners Bracket on Sunday would provide plenty of excitement and close matches. First up would be John Ashby and 2002 Champ Rick Lambrecht. Ashby would strike early firing ten strikes in a row to start with a 289-227 lead after game one. The two would split game two 201-200 allowing Ashby to take a 63 pin lead 490-427 into game three. Lambrecht would not go away as he fired strike after strike in game three ending with a 279 game. Ashby would counter with some strikes of his own and throw a clutch 4 bagger late in the match to cement the win 724-706. Also in the winner bracket, long time teammates and both former champions of the Masters, Rick Liccion and Greg Spinelli would face off. Liccion would build a 30 pin lead winning game one 214-184. Spinelli would make some adjustments and shoot 223 second game. Liccion would match Spinelli pin for pinwith a 223 of his own in game two to keep his 30 pin lead heading into game three. Greg would come out strong in game three but a 4-9 split in the middle of the game would slow his momentum. Spinelli would finish with a 244 and forcing Liccion to mark in the tenth and need 6 pins on his final ball to win. Liccion would get 8 pins and win a very close match 653-651. In other Winners Bracket action, 2004 and 2008 Champion Mike Ryan would earn his final eight berth by defeating 17 year old and first time qualifier Mike Suarez. Mark Sokernyk would shoot a 734 series on the heels of a 265 second game to send Barry Marginean to the Losers Bracket.
The day was not over yet as another set of matches were on schedule to trim the field to eight bowlers. First up in the Losers Bracket would be see a rematch of the 2002 championship match between 2002 Champion Rick Lambrecht and 1987 & 1996 Champion and 2002 Runner-Up Greg Spinelli. Spinelli would waste no time in this match building a big lead early with games of 259 and 231 to lead 490 -399 after two games. Lambrect would again make a run with a 269 final game. Spinelli would answer with a 225 to win 715-668. Rick Lambrecht is a very tough opponent and would not go away without a fight but 2010 was not to be his year. He was part of three high scoring and exciting matches during this tournament with a 742-729 win over 2005 Runner-Up Cory Slater before losses to John Ashby 724-706 and Greg Spinelli 715-668. 17 Year old Mike Suarez would show he is going to be a fixture in this tournament for years to come as he rebounded after a tough loss to Mike Ryan. Suarez would never trail in his match to Barry Marginean winning 680-649 earning a spot in the finals in his very first Masters.
In other Losers Bracket action, Darrin Emperato would face Jeff Furman and Kevin Ashby would take on Brandon Mettler. All of these bowlers would be bowling their third match of the day as their stamina would be tested. Emperato and Furman would ssplit the first two games with Furman leading 432-431 after two games. Darrin would show his stamina as he would put together a string of seven strikes in a row to defeat Jeff Furman 699-632. Brandon Mettler and Kevin Ashby would show their toughness as both were coming off victories over some of Auburn's top bowlers. Mettler would start with the first ten strikes ( for the second time in the day ) and a fine 286 game. Kevin Ashby would answer with strikes of his own and shoot a 255 first game. Game two would be more of the same as the two bowlers keep rolling strikes to keep the crowd on their feet. Kevin would win game two 243-241 to have a 29 pin deficit 498-527 heading into the third game. Mettler would start to show signs of slowing down as he couldn't string together the strikes in game three that Ashby was. Kevin would take control of the match late winning 258-187 for a 756-714 victory. Just like Rick Lambrecht earlier, Mettler made his presence known durng this tournament as he was part of some very high scoring matches and some very close pressure packed action on the lanes.
Now lets look ahead to our finals this weekend. We have two bowlers looking to become the first to win three Masters titles, one looking to join the list of two time Champions and five looking for their first Masters title. The eight bowlers show the balance of youth and experience. The Losers Bracket matches on Saturday find youth vs experience.
First up in the Losers Bracket, we find first time finalists Darrin Emperato vs Kevin Ashby. Both bowlers will be looking to continue the momentum they built last weekend after winning 3 matches in the same day. The younger Ashby is averaging 223 over 21 games while the veteran Emperato is averaging 218 for 18 games. The other Losers Bracket match will put 17 year old Mike Suarez, competing in his first Masters, facing off against 1987 & 1996 Champion , 2002 Runner-Up Greg Spinelli. Spinelli is competing in his 19th tournament with 6 appearances in the final eight and is averaging 220 for 15 games. The young Suarez is holding his own against some of the best bowlers in Auburn with a 203 average over 15 games.
In the Winners Bracket we find 2007 Champion and 1985 Runner-Up Rick Liccion facing off with John Ashby. Ashby has been competing in this tournament for a number of years and is looking to add his name to the list of Champions. He is averaging 224 for 12 games and is really bowling well during the 2010 Masters. Meanwhile, Liccion is trying to join his Wednesday night teammates Benny Appleby and Greg Spinelli as two-time Champions of this prestigious tournament. Liccion never seems to be phased by the crowd or pressure and is averaging 212 for 12 games. The other Winners Bracket match will find first time finalist Mark Sokernyk who is averaging 214 for 12 games bowling against 2004 and 2008 Champion Mike Ryan. Ryan is a consistent presence in the Masters making it to the final eight in five of his eight Masters and averaging 234 for 12 games. Mike Ryan, like Greg Spinelli is looking to be the first bowler to hoist the Championship trophy for the third time. Spinelli will have his work cut out for him coming out of the losers bracket while Ryan seems to be sitting a little more comfortable from the Winners Bracket.
The pressure and intensity will pick up starting Saturday at Noon at Falcon Lanes in Auburn. Make sure to get there early and get a good seat as final eight bowlers are looking to etch their names in the Masters history book. Keep up with all the action by visiting the auburn usbc website and by checking out tournament sponsor The Citizen newspapers continuing coverage.