The 49th Annual Times-News Open opened up Greengarden Lanes with another full field, this one that included 8 past champions holding 24 TN titles, 25 Qualifying titles, and 23 Runners up. Buddy Malone, who has been in the qualifying field of every Times-News Open, was also ready to go.

David Warren started quick with 268 and continued the pace ( 227-223-258 -221) finishing with a 5-game total of 1,197 and the first round lead by 39 pins over 4-time champion Mike Shady, who was seeking his record 6th qualifying total. Shady was also hot at the start with 258-257-258 but cooled over his last 2 games. There was a group closely chasing which included Greg Utegg (1,157), John Ferretti (1,150) and 4-time champion Lee Eighmy, Jr. (1,143). 6-time champion Ron Palombi, Jr. was well off the pace in 52nd with 1,002 while 5-time champion Pat Malone was closer, holding the 13th spot with 1,097. Mark Hooks authored the high game of the day, a 299 in the first game of the B squad. Frank Miller had a 290 in the third game. Sixteenth position was at +91.

The qualifier concluded at Lake City Lanes. Warren (279-262-235) and Shady (267-255-234) both started fast again as Warren built his lead to 59 pins with two games to go but stumbled to the finish and 4-time Champion Mike Shady overcame the deficit as well as a second round charge by Dan Francis (257-246-278-225-257) to claim his record 6th Qualifying Title. Francis’ total of 1,269 was the high for the day as Warren finished 3rd. Jeff McKinley authored a 300 game in the third on his way to a 1,249 round total, second highest of the day. That vaulted him from 65th into a spot in the finals. 4-time champ Eighmy was again solid with a 5-game score of 1,196, leaving him just 4 pins off second and 30 behind Shady. A big splash was made by 16 year old Kylle Twaroski, bowling on the final squad of the day, he scored 255 and 232 in his final two games to sneak into 15th place, just 3 pins over the cut line, to become the youngest finalist in Times-News Open history. The previous record by held by T.J. Mitchell at 18 years old in 2010. T.J. would also make the finals finishing the qualifier in the 5th position. Finals’ appearance recordholder and defending champion Pat Malone, with 28, was unable to mount a charge and ended 21st. Palombi did make a bit of a move but started just too far back. He finished 28th, only his 3rd missed cut in 20 Opens.

The 16 finalists took to the hardwood at North East Lanes and found conditions challenging, as usually is the case at the east county facility. For the day the field averaged just under 199 while the high game for the day was 288 by David Warren in game 6. Through the first 7 games there were 5 different leaders. Eighmy started on top with a win over Warren and then Steve Benke took over after two match wins with games of 239 and 257. Mike Shady then displaced Benke and held on in game 4 as well by averaging 230 and winning all 4 matches. Ryan Lariccia moved in next for a two game stay after 6 consecutive victories and an average of 215. Warren was next to claim king of the hill, even though he lost game 7 to Dan Francis, his 223 was enough to supplant Lariccia by 8 pins. With a game of 268, Lee Eighmy, Jr. found himself on top at the end of the round. He finished the 8 game block with 6 wins and a tie and pinfall of 1,737, good enough for a 20 pin lead over Warren. Warren had the highest average for the day with 220 (25 pins higher than Eighmy) but only managed 5 wins against 3 losses. Shady shot the second highest game of the day, a 278 in the final game to jump to 3rd, 45 pins behind. Interestingly enough, Shady and Eighmy tallied the exact same pinfall, 1,737, however Shady was only able to win 5 matches. Tom Lytle was 4th, 85 pins back.

The finals concluded at Eastway and with both Shady and Eighmy hot off the start it was shaping up as a two-man race. Warren and Lytle remained within striking distance and ended up in a formidable battle for 3rd. Shady reeled of wins in his first 5 matches with games of 277-279-257-248-258 while Eighmy suffered a loss and a tie (268 to Dan Francis) in that same stretch. His games were 225-268-267-299-206. Shady led after games 9-11 and 13 with Eighmy taking a 28 pin lead after his 299 in game 12. In game 14 Eighmy would score his second 268 game tie, this time with Jeff McKinley while Shady was losing his first match of the day, 227-244 against David Kilpatrick. That pushed Eighmy on top by just 2 pins. Shady would drop another, 227-245 to Warren while Eighmy was padding his lead with a 237-180 win over Benke. Heading to the finale, Eighmy led Shady by 42 pins. Tom Lytle, who had the highest round of the day, a 2,061(258-248-256-278-258-259-228-287-248) good for a 257.6 average had valuted to 3rd, still with an outside shot just 72 pins back. Lytle fell on some really tough luck during his stellar round losing 258-277 to Shady, 248-280 to Gregg Utegg, and a heartbreaker in game 12, 278-279 to Kilpatrick. Warren was now out of the hunt as he had dropped to 3rd after the 9th game and then to 4th after game 13. He was 166 back and still 4th. He had a 6-2 record and averaged 227 for the day.

Shady now needed to defeat Eighmy by 13 pins for the title and avoid the fast charging Lytle from sneaking in from 3rd. He started the match with the first 4 and with Eighmy not carrying in the second he had the lead he needed. Eighmy doubled and again did not carry in the 5th but Shady made a bad shot in the 5th as well, failing to extend his lead. Eighmy strung the next 4 setting himself up for the 10th. Shady followed his spare in the 5th with a double but then failed to carry in the 8th. The game was now tight and the title would be claimed in the final frame. Shady buried his shot in the 9th and followed that up with 3 more just like it in the 10th. He finished with 256 to force Eighmy’s hand. An opening strike in the 10th was a must or Shady would claim the title. Eighmy calmly fired one right on the money and then removed all doubt by finishing off the game with two more. He ended the game with 7 strikes, a 259-256 over Shady and his 5th Times-News Open title.

In an astonishing rarity, Eighmy and Shady had accumulated the exact same 8-game pinfall for the second day in-a-row. Both shot 2,029, an average of 253.6. It was the bonus pins associated with Eighmy’s 11-2-3 record over Shady’s 10-6-0 record that made up the difference. Lytle went on to defeat Warren 248-224 as they finished 3rd and 4th, respectively. With a 257-290-249-259 finish, all victories, Ryan Lariccia moved from 9th to 5th. Jeff McKinley bounced between 5th and 6th his last 5 games ultimately losing to Lariccia 259-201 in the finale and settled for 6th.