He knew it wasn't gonna be easy. In the end, he made it look easy.
Coming off a redeye flight directly from Las Vegas and on no sleep, Rob Gotterbarn simply drove over to Lodi Lanes, bowled 10 games on 2 demanding patterns, and came away with his first Bowlage title.
Bowling on the Kegel Boardwalk and Kegel Red Square patterns in a field of 41, Gotterbarn came out of qualifying seeded 4th, rolling games of 196, 219, 224, 204 and 192. In the first round of Match Play, he squared off against the 5 seed Joe Novara and doubled in the tenth to take the win 213 - 210. In the second round, he he took down Kurt Schall 202 - 199 and in the third round, he triumphed over 2-time Bowlage chip winner Michael Martell 229 - 221. Having won all 3 of his match play matches, he entered the Top 4 stepladder seeded 2nd.
In the semis, he faced a difficult foe in Zac Gentile and was able to move on with a 235 - 211 win to set up the final match against 1 seed Zack Vitelli. Gotterbarn was ready for the challenge though, starting with the front 8 strikes en route to a 275 - 210 win and his first Bowlage title.
Rounding out the Top 8 cashers were Martell, Novara, Jeremy Milito, Schall and Tyler Vitelli.
Video is below of the final match:
