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The
finals of the 49th Annual Times-News
Open were conducted at Eastway Lanes on Sunday, January 15, 2012. Throughout
the day there were only two leaders,
Lee Eighmy, Jr. and Mike Shady.
Eighmy started the day with the lead
but relinquished is after the 9th
game (first of the day) when Shady
defeated Tom Lytle 277-258 while
Eighmy was winning, but only with 225.
Shady's lead was 7 pins. Shady held
on after game 10 with a 279-222
victory over Ryan Lariccia as Eighmy was forging a 268 tie with
Dan Francis.  Shady
would hold that lead one more game
as he in front by 23 after game 11.
Shady beat Greg Utegg 257-216.Eighmy
cut into the lead
with a victory of his own 267-223
over Cory Bithell. Eighmy would
finally fight back to the top after
a 299-173 win over Jeff Weiser while
Shady was beating TJ Mitchell
248-224. Eighmy's lead was 28. That
lead, however was short lived as
Eighmy could only muster 206 in a
loss to Lou LaFuria's 258. Shady
topped Kylle Twaroski 258-193 and
that was enough to put him on top by 54,
the largest margin during the round. In
game 14 Eighmy had is second tied
match of the day, again with
268, this time
against Jeff McKinley. Shady
lost his first match of the day,
227-244 to David Kilpatrick.
Eighmy's lead a slim 2 pins. 227 was
not lucky for Shady in game 15 either
as he lost to David Warren's 245.
Eighmy pulled off a 237-180 win over
Steve Benke and the lead was 42
heading to the position round match
between the two. Tom
Lytle, who had lost to opponents who
shot games of 277, 280, 279 shot 287 in game
15 and moved to 30 pins behind Shady
with an outside shot at the title.
Lytle would face David Warren who
held the third position for the
first four games of the day until
passed by Lytle when the two faced
off in game 13 in a match won by
Lytle 258-223. Lytle had been 4th
for each of those first four games. In
the finale, Eighmy started with a
strike and a spare and when Shady
strung the first 4, he was in the
lead. Shady left a 2-4-5 in the 5th
and followed that with a double
while Eighmy managed a double before
recording a 9 spare. Shady failed to
carry an all import ant
shot in the 8th while Eighmy
continued striking. Shady shot 256
finishing first leaving Eighmy heading
to the 10th needing the first strike
to win. Eighmy put one hand on the
trophy with a solid strike and then
grabbed it with both hands when he struck on
the second. A final strike meant a
259-256 match victory and a 75 pin
margin. Shady
and Eighmy both lead after 4 games
during the round but Eighmy lead
after the all important 16th game. During
round 1 Eighmy and Shady both shot
the same 8-game score (1,737).
Eighmy's 45 pin lead was the result
of an additional match win and an
additional tie for Eighmy. Round
2 produced the same result ....
Eighmy and Shady had the exact same
8-game total (2,029). Eighmy's
advantage coming from the two
matches that Eighmy tied with scores
of 268. Those 30 pins coupled with
the 45 from round 1 resulted in the
75 pin victory. This
is the first time in the 49 year
history of the TN Open that the
champion and runner-up bowled the
exact same, not only for each round,
but for all of the games in the
finals. Lytle
bested Warren in the 3v4 match
248-224, leaving Lytle 8 pins short
of Shady's second place total. Both
men held their
positions. Lariccia used a 263
average over his final four games to
jump from 9th to 5th. Jeff McKinley
who had the high game of the day,
tieing Eighmy with 299(both were
shot in game 12) finished 6th. Dan
Francis finished 7th. Francis who
already holds the record for the two
highest scoring tied matches, a 279
tie with Lariccia in 2010 and a 269
tie with Beaver Clark that same
year, added the 3rd highest as well
when he tied Eighmy with 268 in game
10. Interestingly
enough, the last time the finals
concluded at Eastway, in 2008, Eighmy
finished first, Shady second, and
Warren 4th. The same results as this year. |
