Shawly Bowlers, Micah’s Pride top FEDBG-FMBL qualifying round

Shawly Bowlers and Micah’s Pride assured themselves of the top two positions by protecting their lead from the pursuing Ekis-4 and Pin Rockers during the 20th week and last qualifying session of the FEDBG- FMBL Invitational Meet at the Bowling City here.
Seizing the front seat on the 16th week, Ruel Perez, Edison Arena, Nestor Sanosa, Cloyd Opena, and team leaders Arnel Bautista and Sally Sanosa tried padding their lead from 14.5 to 32 points from the nearest pursuer. Shawly was 41 points away from Micah’s Pride after the penultimate match so that though the latter garnered its fifth 5th Team of the Week accolade at 35 ultimate match points the former kept the lead with 26 session points to be top qualifier on 579 points.
Micah’s Pride, on the other hand, dislodged Ekis-4 from second spot on the 18th week on a superlative 36 points to be up by 10.5 points when the latter could only purse 24 points (487-476.5).
On the 19th week Ekis-4 inched 2 points on 27-25 banking to make it 512-503.5 into the last qualifying day. The clear possibility of being dislodged pushed Oca Bernabe, Melvin Lising, Renato Gonzales, Jack Jarin, Ellen Bernabe and team captain Ester Santoc into bowling harder and their collective effort was rewarded with their 7th team honors. Micah’s retained second place as Ekis-4 could only add 23 points to be third qualifier on 526.5 points.
The battle for the 4th berth and qualifier cutoff was also tight with Pin Rockers only 15 points ahead of Silver Strikes at 441.5-426.5. But with the latter checking in undermanned Pin Rockers grabbed the last qualifier spot on total points of 475.5 points. Silver Strikes will join BCT Mongoose, Lane Aligner Squad and JTC Keglers in a 3-game playoff to determine the one team to join the outright four qualifiers to the stepladder stage of the tournament.