Another perfect game; this time by Raymond

With the rate bowlers are rolling perfect 300 games these days, Benjamin “Kappon” Sablan may have to rethink his offer of giving away $5,000 to anyone who achieves every keglers’ dream.

Three days after Robert Talavera accomplished the feat, 17-year-old Raymond Zapanta became the youngest bowler to capture the sport’s Holy Grail when he knocked down 12 strikes in 10 frames in the recent Budweiser Saturday Night League.

Suiting up for defending champion Fun & Games and playing in the No. 11 and 12 lanes of the Saipan Bowling Center, Zapanta had a bull’s eye on each and every pin arranged by the automated pinsetter in his third and last game and peppered the acetate with strikes galore en route to the big 300.

Fellow bowlers and tenpin enthusiasts watched in admiration, as the youth bowler handled the mounting pressure with ease much the same way 37-year-old Talavera methodically demolished all pins presented before him last Feb. 15 during the Wednesday Night Mixed League.

Zapanta actually kicked off the fateful evening of bowling on a sour note, as he rolled a pedestrian 186 in the first game before finding his stride in his second game with a 218.

He said never in his wildest dreams did he conjure an image of himself holding the night’s scores a few hours later with 12 strikes and the score of “300” credited to his name.

Zapanta said the thought of him rolling the perfect game hasn’t yet set in, and it would probably take a few more days for him to fully digest the entirety of his latest and, so far proudest bowling accomplishment.

The Kagman High School senior now joins an elite list of CNMI bowlers with 300 games that includes, aside from Talevera, Benny Pangelinan, Jaime Sasamoto, Jonathan Hensley, and Danny Robles.

Pangelinan has the honor of rolling the Commonwealth’s first-ever perfect game, turning the trick in March 10, 1982. Lo and behold, just nine days later, Pangelinan’s performance was duplicated by Sasamoto in March 19.

It took nearly 22 years before Hensley duplicated the feat in Feb. 19, 2004 and the bowling community didn’t have to wait another two decades for perfection to strike again, as Robles made it a four-man club last Aug. 26 when he became the first bowler to score 300 at the Capital Bowling Center in Garapan.

Pangelinan, Sasamoto, and Hensley also rolled their perfect games at SBC. And then came Talavera and Zapanta’s string of successes not even a week apart last Wednesday and Saturday at SBC.