Mike Shady was the 2-time defending champion heading into the 2004 event. He opened with an excellent 5-game block of games of 258-242-244-247-248. The 1,239 was good enough for second spot as the round was led by Chuck Schommer who used an opening game 300 enroute to a 5-game total of 1,242. Larry Bertolo also fashioned a perfect game, his coming in game 5 of the A squad.

The final round of the qualifier was contested at Lake City Lanes and, although the scoring was a bit lower, the results were the same. Chuck Schommer again had the high score of the day, 1,134, but actually had to overcome an 11-pin deficit to Shady after 9 games to capture the qualifying title. His 10-game total of 2,376 was good for a slim 4-pin victory over Mike Shady. Past champions Ron Palombi, Jr. (4), Lee Eighmy, Jr. (5), and Steve Benke (12) also qualified for the final field. The cut fell at +142 and the cash line at +112.

The finals began with 8 games at Westway Lanes. Game 1 featured a match between the two high qualifiers, with Schommer besting Shady 238-236. This would be an insight for the weekend as the two battled to the end. Schommer would build a 63-pin lead, 206 over Shady, through 6 games by averaging 246 and winning each match. Although still in the lead, Schommer allowed the field to close the gap by losing his last two matches with games of 177 and 224.

The final round at Eastway would start fast, especially for Shady. His opponents shot 248 and 269 in games 9 and 10 but Shady would win both matches with 258 and 289. Schommer, on the other hand, was not so fortunate. His opening game 267 was not good enough against Paul Marnella’s 298. Schommer would follow up with 259 and a win but his lead was now just 12 pins over Shady. Shady would finally overtake Schommer (by 2 pins) after game 13. Schommer would bounce back on top with a 300 in game 14. Shady would then close that 73-pin gap with a 244-178 victory over Ryan Lariccia while Schommer was being clipped by Scott Irwin 223-236. This cut the deficit to 22 pins meaning that the winner of the position round match would also capture the TN title.

Both players would strike in 6 of the first 7 frames but Schommer missed a one-pin spare in the eighth that would prove fatal. Shady continued to strike into the 10th, finishing with 266 compared to Schommer’s 226 resulting in a 48-pin victory and making Shady the third 3-time champion and the first to capture 3 titles in-a-row. Schommer actually had the highest actual pinfall in each of the 4 rounds of the event. Unfortunately, his opponents averaged 235.6 against him in round 2 allowing him to win just 3 of 8 matches while Shady captured 7 of 8 and the additional 120 bonus pins that came with those 4 victories. Schommer’s 16-game finals total, 3,818, was a tournament record. His 26-game total, 6,194, was just 2-pins shy of the record held by Mike Shady (2002).