Micronesian Brokers win Thursday Night League

Micronesian Brokers, Inc. topped the Thursday Night League after finishing the 15th season with the best record in the 16-team, four-month ten pin bowling competition that ended June 17.

The team made up of skipper Kitz Barja, Gerard Borromeo, Mario Diola, Allan Hernandez, Randy Lacay, Simon Manacop, and Dannie Robles wound up with a final win-loss record of 62.5-33.5 to beat runner-up Multi-Line Supply.

MBI players received their championship trophy Thursday evening at the league’s venue, Capitol Bowling Center in Garapan.

“We had second and third place finishes before and we’re so happy to finally win this championship. In the past, we fielded good teams but we didn’t have enough good players and we lost to teams that had them. This season we added Dannie [Robles] and Simon [Manacop] and they helped us get over the hump,” said Barja.

For winning the title, Team MBI received $600 in cash.

Multi-Line Supply didn’t come home empty handed after finishing the season with a second-best 59-37 mark. Players Wellington Ang, Carlos Ballesteros, Arnel Del Rosario, Dong Eparwa, Richard Leong, Robert Perez, Roger Vales, Alex Uy, Katty Uy, and Libby Cayabyan split the $350 second place purse.

Century Insurance Co. cornered third place, a mere two points behind Multi-Line Supply, with a 57-39 win-loss record. The team bagged $250 for its troubles. CIC was made up of Rene Cabigao, Ador Dimaano, Roman Mamauag, Jerry Tan, Ernie Villarin, Raymond Zapanta, Ruselle Zapanta, and Ross Zapanta.

Outlaws and Salon De Manila round up the top five in the Thursday Night League with win-loss marks of 56-40 and 54.5-41.5, respectively. Outlaws earned $150 for its achievement, while SDM got $100.

The rest of the teams, with their win-loss records for the season in parenthesis, are as follows: Pacific Home Appliances (52-44); Verizon (51-45); Localz (48.5-47.5); Philippine Eagle Corp. (48-48); Microl Corp. (46-50); Wuzz Up (44.5-51.5); Keep the Faith (42-54); DFS (39.5-56.5); Pacific Island Aviation (39-57); Inmayts (35.5-60.5); and Eyun Ji Corp. (33-63).

The Thursday Night League kicked off its 16th season also last Thursday and Barja believes Team MBI has what it takes to repeat as champions.

“We want to continue what we started last season. They are a lot of good teams out there but we still feel pretty optimistic about our chances. In fact, we added recent Pepsi King of the Lanes winner Alex Castro to our lineup,” he said.

In the special team awards, CIC won first place in three of the four categories. The team won the high game scratch competition after rolling 1,038 pinfalls. MBI finished second knocking down 991 pins.

CIC also took the plum in the high game with handicap after the team bowled a score of 1,143. Second place was Localz after coming up with a 1,126. High series scratch also belonged to CIC after rolling 2,795 pinfalls. MBI again took second with its score of 2,722.

Pacific Home Appliances nosed out CIC in the high series with handicap after the team knocked down a total of 3,201 pinfalls. CIC found itself in an unfamiliar situation of accepting second place after the team knocked down 3,140 pins.

The Philippine Bowling Association led by its president Jess Rebusada runs the Thursday Night League. Other officers of the PBA are vice president Milo Orallo, secretary Rene Cabigao, treasurer Ross Zapanta, and auditor Bert Travilla.