Del Rosario rules Rumble

Arnel Del Rosario successfully held off the advance of the women by winning the Miller Lite/Pepsi Rumble 7-8-9 Bowling Tournament that wrapped up last Sunday at the Saipan Bowling Center.

The 38-year-old Luen Fung warehouse employee rolled perfect 300 scores in his first two outings and bowled a 258 in his third and final game to finish with a whopping total of 858 pinfalls in the series.

Del Rosario then watched and waited, as others tried but were not able to beat the standard he set. But he would be the first to admit that he was in pins and needles the whole time.

One bowler that really caught his attention was women bowler Carol McKenzie, as she came closest to tumbling Del Rosario’s score from its lofty perch.

This, after the petite Filipina fired a perfect 300 in her first game and then followed it up with a 267 in the second. However, she would come up a pin short after bowling a 290 in her third game to wound up with a three-game series total of 857.

Taking third place was another female bowler, Emi Williams.

Last year’s May Masters women’s champion finished with a total of 845 pinfalls. Like Del Rosario, she started off with perfect 300 scores in her first two games but blew her chances after limping with a 245 in the third game.

Jess Rebusada and Alex Cacdac cornered fourth and fifth place in the competition with three-game series totals of 842 and 833, respectively.

The rest of the top 10, and their respective scores in parenthesis, were as follows: John Santos (823); Arnel Bautista (822); Mike Guirey (820); and Santos, Joe Etpison, and Roger Vales (818).

After the awarding, officials of organizer Saipan Bowling Association raffled off close to $1,500 worth of prizes, which included a colored TV, a DVD player, and CD/Radio player.

The participants got a blast from the prizes but the day still belonged to Del Rosario, a right-hander who first took up the sport of bowling in 1997, two years after arriving on Saipan.

He said he didn’t expect to win the event at all and said he just tried to play as best he could. The win earned him $500 in cash as well as a two-foot high championship trophy courtesy of main sponsor Pacific Trading Co.

The Marikina, Philippine native admitted that the Rumble 7-8-9 is his first championship ever and said that after having tasted victory in the tournament, he would surely be craving for more in the future.

McKenzie and Williams pocketed $250 and $150 for their runner-up finishes. Places fourth to 10th also took home prizes ranging from a $100 to a case of beer. First-day leader Santos also earned $100 after bowling the most number of perfect games with 10.

The Rumble was held for three days starting last July 11. It returned on July 17 before concluding on July 18.

A one-of-a-kind bowling tournament on Saipan, it awards a bowler a strike if he or she knocks down seven pins or better on the first ball in the first game. In the second game, the bowler must then knock down eight or more pins to get a strike. And on the third game, the player must knock down nine of more pins to get a strike.

Players then must knock down pins that remain standings outside the “considered strike” rule to get a spare.

Main sponsor Pacific Trading Co. donated $750 aside from the championship trophy. SBA said all proceeds from Miller Lite/Pepsi Rumble “7-8-9” Bowling Tournament will go to SBA’s youth program and funding for off-island tournaments.

For more information on future SBA tournaments please e-mail SBA officials Ross Zapanta at zapanta@vzpacifica.net or Ador Dimaano at ador_dimaano@tanholdings.com.