Story And Photo Courtesy Of SBT
Peoria - - - SBT visited AMF Peoria Lanes on September 19th for the final Phoenix-area Saturday Shootout of 2026, and in a shocking turn of events, Chase Rohlik took full advantage of a miscue by Ron Schloss in the 10th frame of the championship match to seize the $2,500 first place prize!
In a relatively small turnout after our huge Labor Day event, 65 bowlers rolled 106 entries in Peoria. But with a fully-guaranteed prize fund, that small entry count simply gave bowlers a shorter path to the big money. SBT still paid out $14,550 in cash and prizes in this event! This was our first Saturday Shootout with the newly-enhanced prize structure, paying out $250 for making the cut and an additional $100 for making the 2nd cut out of the Cashers Round.
Bowlers competed on 2024 PBA Roth, a Challenge pattern at 42 feet with 31.65mL of volume and a 4.66:1 ratio. Cut scores on this pattern were a bit chaotic. Although the average cut score across the day was +47, fairly typical for a Saturday Shootout, the four divisions had widely varying cut scores. At each end of the extremes, the Senior Division average cut was only +12, while the Scratch Division cut averaged a +90.
The championship featured the following four division winners:
- Rohlik, 25, of Gilbert, Challenger Division, 199 tournament average and 0 handicap. He reached the title match with a 687 in afternoon qualifying, 694 in the Cashers Round, and a 217 to 202 (200+2) defeat of Michael Arce in the Eliminator Round.
- Schloss, 57, of Surprise, Senior Division, 213 tournament average and 0 handicap. His path to the title match was a 695 afternoon qualifying score, 660 in the Cashers Round, and a 211-193 victory over Rick Darnell in the Eliminator Round.
- Ryan Tetreault, 26, of Tucson, Scratch Division, 204 tournament average. His 693 in morning qualifying and 670 in the Cashers Round were sufficient to seed him directly into the championship because only three Scratch bowlers qualified in their 14-entry division.
- Anthony Damato, 26, of Peoria, Foundation Division, 152 tournament average and 38 handicap. He reached the final match with a 652 (538+114) in afternoon qualifying, 670 (556+114) in the Cashers Round, and a 210 (172+38) to 150 (107+43) triumph over Michelle Hadley in the Eliminator Round.
As the championship match got underway, Schloss surged out to an early lead with strikes in the 2nd through 5th frames, with no one else able to put more than two strikes together. To that point, Schloss led Rohlik by 19, Damato by 27 with handicap, and Tetreault by 32. In the 6th, Damato dropped out of contention with his fourth open frame, but then Schloss left a 6-7-10 in the 7th. This opened a tiny window of hope for the others. Tetreault spared in the 7th to draw closer, but Rohlik missed a 10-pin to the left. After a spare by Tetreault in the 9th and strikes by all the others, Schloss not only held a lead, but with a double up, it appeared to all that he was likely to come away with the victory unless something very unusual happened.
And it did.
Tetreault closed out his 10th with strike, strike, big four to finish with 201. Damato opened to round out the field in 4th. As Rohlik stepped up in the 10th, he had a possible 214 in front of him, while Schloss needed only a mark and count to seal the victory. Rohlik went first and threw what appeared to be an errant shot to the right, but the ball roared back for a light mixer where the headpin stood up briefly in the 4-pin spot before being tripped by the 7-pin. Schloss then followed with a “Greek Church” 4-6-7-9-10. Rohlik then stepped back up needing another strike to have a chance. This shot hit a little high, briefly showing the 4-9 before the 9 was tripped forward and left and nudged the 4 just enough to rock once and then fall over.
Schloss was now faced with the daunting task of picking up the Greek Church to fend off Rohlik, so he went for it and picked off the 10-pin only, leaving him with a 200, one pin shy of Tetreault, who vaulted to 2nd place while Rohlik didn’t even need to throw another ball but finished with a strike anyway for 214 and the championship!
Immediately after his win, Rohlik had the opportunity to break the Progressive Pot by throwing three additional strikes, but was unable to convert on his first attempt, so the pot continues to grow and will carry into our next events!
SBT thanks AMF Peoria Lanes for hosting this great event, and especially Patsy Wells, who asked us to come to this center and worked hard to make sure we felt welcome. This center does not host very many tournaments, but the entire event ran very smoothly and we look forward to returning in the future.
Our continued thanks to all of our outstanding sponsors, many of whom provide prize giveaways for our bowlers which are awarded randomly during the tournament to our early-bird entrants. Ryan Tetreault won a free high performance bowling ball in our 8:30 squad, courtesy of Brunswick. Justin Perry won a free SBT jersey from EFX in the 10:00 squad, while Ron Schloss won a free single entry for any SBT event in the next year. Tony Opiola won a B3 Performance lane package with Specto, and Zach Van Dusen won a one-year subscription to Tenpin Toolkit!
Thanks also to our local Arizona sponsors Chuck's Painting, Melody Rane with Rane Family Insurance, Precision Cellular Wellness, and Jake's Bethany Auto Repair, all of whom are stepping up to support bowling in our community. Please show your appreciation to our sponsors by patronizing these businesses and letting them know how much you appreciate their support of SBT!
Our Mystery Score pot paid out $400 in this event. About $1,800 carries over to our next Saturday Shootout at Cactus Bowl in Tucson in early November!
Two high qualifiers in our 8:30 squad won $50 in SBT credit toward a future event. Congratulations to Jeff Henricksen and Jericho Gaydos!
The championship match is available for streaming on YouTube. Subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com/@bowlsbt to be notified of future event postings. You can watch a playback of that event here: https://youtu.be/kr6-wBckv7E. Full results are posted at bowlsbt.com/results.
Our next event is another BIG ONE from October 9th-11th at Riverside Resort Hotel Casino in Laughlin, Nevada, where we will be paying out another huge guaranteed prize fund, including $7,000 for first place! A bowler breaking the Progressive Pot there could win as much as $10,000, possibly more! Be sure to register and pay by the September 25th deadline to receive early-bird pricing of just $109 for a single entry.
Thanks as always to our amazing staff. Amanda Larson and Barb Wilson worked this event alongside John Verbil.