Previous Story
Fiesta rules PBA Saturday Night League
Players of Fiesta Resort & Spa Saipan pose with their championship trophies during the awards ceremony for the 51st PBA Saturday Night League last weekend at the Saipan Bowling Center. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)
Fiesta, which finished only fifth in the 50th edition of the weekend league, completed the recent season with a 47-25 record to finish in first place in the nine-team field. Fiesta defeated PIN.Org and D’Unknown for the top honors. PIN.org and D’Unknown had identical 43-29 slates with the former winning the tiebreak to drop D’Unknown to third. Last season’s champion J’s Restaurant/SBC was good only for seventh place with its even 36-36 mark and behind Team Mobil (40.5-21.5, Graphics (40.15-31.5), and IT&E (39.5-32.5). Completing the field were One Shot (34.5-37.5) and the Jets (27-45).
The newly crowned champion is composed of Raymond, Ross, Raphael, Ruselle, and Gigi Zapanta, Simon Manacop, Lala Taitano, Ador Dimaano, and Jerry Tan. Runner-up PIN.Org has Raymond Angeles, Ferdee Generoso, Allan Hernandez, Richard Leon, Ricky Moscoso, Rusty Musca,Joey Ranjo, and Eric Rabang, while D’Unknowns’ players list includes Raul Dumapit, Tom Bernardo, Ron Cal, Darwin Gonzales, Dannie Robles, Joe Sablan, and Wellington Ang.
The Top 3 finishers received trophies and cash prizes during the awards ceremony at SBC last Saturday. The league also recognized the individuals and teams that topped the scratch game, scratch series, handicap game, and handicap series.
In the men’s division, Percy Omecheleng nearly swept the four categories winning the scratch game (277) against Alex Castro (269); the scratch series (710) versus Angeles (657); and the handicap series (737) over Bernard Paraiso (724). Ronald Batac foiled Omechelang’s bid for a sweep when he ruled the handicap game (294) against Castro (291).
In the women’s division, Yho Villavicencio went 4-for-4 with her 235 in the scratch game beating the 229 of Gloria Omechelang and her 267 in the handicap game outclassing the latter’s 259. In the scratch series, Villavicencio carded 598 to edge the 591 of Kathy Mersai and the former also prevailed against the latter in the handicap series, 694-657.
In the team division, Fiesta topped two events with its 1,075 scratch game downing the 1,014 of SBC/J’s and its 1,175 in the handicap game defeating the 1,118 of PIN.Org. SBC/J’s and Graphics split the two other divisions with the latter posting 3,129 in the handicap series to top Fiesta and the former also winning over Fiesta, 2,869-2,854 in the scratch series.
Meanwhile, four more individuals were recognized in the awards ceremony. Robert Talavera and Kathy Mersai were lauded for recording the highest average in the men’s and women’s division. Talavera averaged 194.37 to beat Omechelang (192.06) and Dimaano (190.91), while Mersai registered 175.91 to down Gloria Omechelang (164.02) and Villavicencio (162.10).
In the battle for the most improved player awards, Dimaano clinched the men’s crown, as he moved up 22.91 pinfalls from his previous average of 168. Irene May Alegre took the women’s plum with her 10.30 pinfall improvement as she averaged 144.30 this season (from 134). Alegre won over Taitano (7.04) and Mersai (2.91), while Dimaano edged Tito Corpuz (10.91) and Edgar Abalos (10.32).
