The Spring 2013 season came to an official conclusion on Tuesday night, complete with prize disbursement and the announcement of the various season-ending awards.Proving that you can teach an old dog new tricks, this season – packed with a LOT of returning veterans – ended up being the best season in our league's history. Of course, it didn't hurt that we brought an incredible rookie into the fold...but we'll get to that. The following are bowlers that shot their all-time bests:Highest game?Shane Daniel, Mark DeVoe, Bryan Mohr, Neil Rieger, Ryan Doll, and Bill KrejciHighest series?Shane Daniel, Mark DeVoe, Cliff Barendsen, Dennis Blake, Steve Kiernan, Bill Krejci, and Ken M. WilsonHighest season-ending average?Sarah West, Shane Daniel, Mark DeVoe, Andy McLeod, Anita Osthoff, Phil Schroeder, Dennis Blake, Cliff Barendsen, Ian Goetz, Bill Krejci, and Ken M. WilsonSeveral bowlers also put up scores that put them into the all-time records in league history:Ken M. Wilson and Bill Krejci put up the 2nd and 3rd highest series in league history, respectfully, during the season. Wilson put up a 764 in Week #5 while Krejci put up a 743 series three weeks later. Krejci also shot the 5th highest score in league history that same night, ending with a 279.Wilson had his best season to date, ending with a 210 average, and threw the most 200+ games in a single season as well as logging the most total pins in a single season. Cliff Barendsen took over the honor of being the all-time most improved bowler in-between seasons by raising his average an incredible 30 pins from last season. Just imagine what he'll do once he gets his own bowling ball.Rookie sensation, and now the 4th best bowler in our league's history, Kody Karnes took over the top spot on the all-time list for most 600+ series in a single season. He shot 600+ in 13 of the sixteen weeks. Veteran Steve Kiernan showed up to sub one night and ended up with a 235 average, making him the best all-time substitute bowler our league has ever seen.With their season ending averages, X bowlers this season found their names cemented moreso on the best bowlers of all-time league: Wilson is now #2, Kody debuted at #4, Krejci moved to 7th, Ian to 13th, Cliff debuted on the list at #19, and Hall of Famer Bob Bunker is now 24th.The biggest individual achievements for the season came out as follows:Women's High Series Scratch: Angela Bradford (557)Women's High Game Scratch: Freda Schroeder (213)Women's High Series Handicap: Anita Osthoff (636)Women's High Game Handicap: Sarah West (225)Women's Pins Over Average: Freda Schroeder +55Women's Most Improved Bowler: Freda Schroeder +5Men's High Series Scratch: Ken M. Wilson (764)Men's High Game Scratch: Bill Krejci (279)Men's High Series Handicap: Kody Karnes (719)Men's High Game Handicap: Seth Gunderson (281)Men's Pins Over Average: Neil Rieger +96Men's Most Improved Bowler: Kody Karnes +31The results of the Season Favorites were announced at the Tuesday night meeting:Rookie of the Season - Kody Karnes (Bryan Mohr, runner-up)Captain of the Season - Ken M. Wilson (Ryan Doll, runner-up)Carl Goetz Defensive Bowler of the Season - Kody Karnes (Ken M. Wilson, runner-up)Underdog of the Season - Bryan Mohr (Mark DeVoe, runner-up)Bob Brunker Good Sportsmanship Award - Rob Kaszuba (Bob Brunker, runner-up)Emily Podhajsky Good Sportsmanship Award - Anita Osthoff (Angela Bradford, runner-up)Pat Searcy Life of the Party Award - Jonathan Vigliaturo (Seth Gunderson, runner-up)Scott Murdock "Get 'er Done" Award - Ryan Doll (Cliff Barendsen, runner-up)Most Fun Team to Face - Murder, He Wrote (Split It and Hit It, runner-up)Most Feared Team - Snakes on a Lane (Dragon Balls, runner-up)People's Choice: Most Valuable Bowler - Kody Karnes (Bill Krejci, runner-up)Actual individual team MVBs:Ballz Out - Cliff BarendsenBrunk Enough to Dowl - Kody KarnesDragon Balls - Rob Kaszuba/Ryan DollMurder, He Wrote - BIll KrejciSnakes on a Lane - Carl GoetzSplit It and Hit It - Dennis BlakeThree Strikes and You're Out! - Angela BradfordWill Strike if Provoked - Aubrey MorenActual: Most Valuable Bowler - Kody Karnes (Bill Krejci, runner-up)Cumulative #1 Power Ranked Bowler: Kody Karnes (Ken M. Wilson, runner-up)The Tournament of Champions was won by Kody Karnes when he poured it on in the final two frames against runner-up Mark DeVoe. As this season's champ, Kody received an additional $42 in his prize envelope. DeVoe received $22 for second place. Scoot officially gave the Scott Murdock "Get 'er Done" Award this season to Ryan Doll, with Cliff Barendsen as the runner-up. Why? Read the rest of this entry »

The Spring 2013 season came to a conclusion Tuesday night with league champions Will Strike if Provoked staving off a surging Dragons Balls in a Finals showdown. Congratulations to Phil Schroeder, Dennis "Pops" Laube, Freda Schroeder, and Aubrey Moren who regain their crown after letting others borrow it last season. These four have finished atop the league standings three of the past four seasons. Ready to see how the rest of the night ended? Let's get it...After last week's narrow finish, the battle for the championship was slated to be a good one. With eventual champions Will Strike if Provoked needing only to win a single game to wrap it all up, last season's runner-ups – Dragon Balls – stood in their way. After a blowout in Game #1, Doll's Dragons looked to be on their way to a repeat of when they last met in the position round. However, that's when Will Strike's Aubrey Moren woke up and the entire Dragon Balls team went to bed. Leading his team to the championship, Moren ended his night with a 637 series en route to their 3-1 matchup victory...sealing the title in Game #2. Ryan Doll put up the most firepower for the Balls, ending with a below-average 569. This is Dennis "Pops" Laube's 7th title (on his 70th birthday!), Freda and Phil's 5th, and Aubrey's 4th. Congrats to the Spring 2013 season champions! The Dragon Balls end their season, once again, in 2nd place.In the battle between 3rd and 4th place, Snakes on a Lane came out firing. With Ken M. Wilson leading the way with his 652 series, the team managed to outlast opponents Murder, He Wrote – despite a #1 Power Ranked bowler performance from Murder's Seth Gunderson, who also led his team with a 568 series – to earn one of two sweeps racked up in the Finals. With the wins, the Snakes finish in 3rd place despite having earned the distinction of being the second best team in league history. It don't mean a thing if you ain't earned that ring. The two teams swap places with Murder, He Wrote taking over 4th place. When it comes to placing bets on a team on the move, it's pretty safe to wager on Brunk Enough to Dowl. With rookie sensation Kody Karnes leading the way with a 640 series to end his initial season in our league as the 4th best bowler in GutterAlley history, the team also got huge output from this week's Most Valuable Bowler Eric Lynch to book the second sweep of the night. Opponents Three Strikes and You're Out!, led by Bob Brunker and his 516 series, simply never recovered after their 3-pin loss in Game #1. Despite both teams ending with a 31-33 record, Three Strikes takes 5th with their total pins tiebreaker – a full 2,274 ahead – while Brunk Enough wraps up their run in 6th place.The true comeback victory of the evening took place in the matchup down on Lanes 47 & 48 where opponents Split It and Hit It faced off against Ballz Out. With the Ballz' Cliff Barendsen hoisting a team-leading 516 series, the crew seemed to be on a roll after taking both Games #1 and #2. However, Game #3 is when Split It took over and completely reversed the momentum of the matchup. Battling back and splitting the series at 2-2, every member of Split It and Hit It ended with a series above his own average, with anchor Dennis Blake leading the charge with his 532. With the two wins, both teams remain firmly in their respective positions on the standings with Split It and Hit It finishing their second season in the league in 7th place while Ballz Out fills the ominous 8th place spot. Bowlers slapping high fives for contributing to the seasons with the most 200+ games ever in The 200 Club this week include: Aubrey Moren (238, 205), Bill Krejci (213), Carl Goetz (201, 233, 206), Ian Goetz (202), Ken M. Wilson (211, 216, 225), Kody Karnes (245, 228), Ryan Doll (213), and Seth Gunderson (212).The Tournament of Champions came down to the wire with Kody Karnes from Division #2 besting Mark DeVoe from Division #4 to win the whole thing. Both men will find extra money in their prize envelopes next week for their 1st and 2nd place finishes.Other people receiving bonuses in their prize envelopes during our Fun Night include:Women's High Series Scratch - Angela Bradford (557) = $20Men's High Series Scratch - Ken M Wilson (764) = $20Women's High Game Scratch - Freda Schroeder (213) = $20Men's High Game Scratch - Bill Krejci (279) = $20Women's High Series Handicap - Anita Osthoff (636) = $10Men's High Series Handicap - Kody Karnes (719) = $10Women's High Game Handicap - Sarah West (225) = $10Men's High Game Handicap - Seth Gunderson (281) = $10The first place team will also receive extra money in their envelopes as well as this season's Actual Most Valuable Bowler. Voting is now open for the Spring 2013 Season Favorites, including a brand new category in honor of league legend Pat Searcy – the Pat Searcy "Life of the Party" Award, presented to the individual that made Tuesday nights a hell of a lot more fun. Please take a minute and cast your ballot today! Voting will remain open until noon on Tuesday, May 21st.Finally, this season's Hall of Fame inductee will be announced and awarded his trophy – a bowling pin painted in his likeness. See you next Tuesday!

THIS WEEK'S MVB Eric Lynch Runner Up: (See Posting)	#1 POWER BOWLER Seth Gunderson Runner Up: Eric Lynch	#1 H2H BOWLER Aubrey Moren Runner Up: Eric Lynch
FROM THE GUTTER (GUTTER QUOTE) "Oh yeah, we got this. There's no way we're ending another season in 2nd place." Ryan Doll, before finishing another season in 2nd place.

With the closing of the Spring 2013 season, we've decided to expand the offering of our end of the league Season Favorite Awards by honoring two people that have made GutterAlley better over the years in their own respective ways.The Pat Searcy "Life of the Party" AwardFor those of you that have had the pleasure of rolling in a season with Pat Searcy on the roster, you know how much more fun it is to show up on Tuesday nights. Searcy was a part of GutterAlley's very first season and proved to be both an incredible bowler on the lanes as well as one hell of a source of comedy off them. Over the years, it was his larger than life personality that solidified his place in league lore as you didn't feel that you truly belonged until Pat would playfully rib you and make you the butt of one of his jokes. In an effort to honor the man who should be in the GutterAlley Hall of Fame (let's remedy this next season, people!), we proudly introduce the Pat Searcy "Life of the Party" Award. This award will be voted upon each season by the league to call attention to the individual who, more so than anyone else in the league, made Tuesday nights fun because of their larger than life personality. Now come on back into the league, Pat, and win this award next season!!!The Scott Murdock "Get 'er Done" AwardWhen you stop and think about it, no one has done more for GutterAlley over the years than our very own Scott "Scooter J" Murdock. He's been the league secretary for as long as anyone can remember. He's the one in charge of creating and then distributing all of the weekly white sheets with all of its information. He quietly collects the money each and week from the team envelopes and makes sure it's all accounted for – and bugs you if it isn't! He's also the powerhouse programmer behind GutterAlley.com, making everything jump, jive, and wail the way it should. Is he a powerhouse on the lanes? That didn't matter in the least as hoards of people voted him in as part of the inaugural class of the GutterAlley Hall of Fame due to his unending dedication and support to making our league the best one around. It is with great pleasure that we create and name an award after the man who does so much and expects so very little in return. To stay true to Scoot's quiet nature, this season favorite award will not be selected by the voters but rather by Scoot himself to honor the individual that he feels did the most to help the league out each season. League officers are, of course, ineligible to receive this award. We look forward to announcing the winners of these two awards – along with this season's GutterAlley Hall of Fame inductee – during our Fun Night on May 21st. See you then!

The fifteenth installment of "The 11th Frame" features some interesting nuggets from our Top 25s collection, covering the accolades (and disappointments) of our current and not so-current league rollers.As mentioned already in this week's write-up – Carl Goetz was this week's #1 Power Ranked Bowler and teammate Ken M. Wilson was the MVB the week before the Finals in the biggest "too little, too late" of the season. With the Finals coming our way on Tuesday, we decided to look into our treasure trove of statistical trivia and see what we had in regards to the output our league has tallied on the true do-or-die night of each season.Check this out:INDIVIDUALS: Read the rest of this entry »

While two teams opted to post bowl (leaving one bowler on each of team stranded to roll and give out air high fives after striking or sparing), the main matchup of the evening ended in what can officially be called a cliff hanger. On a night in which the championship could have been wrapped up, the race to the finish will truly take place next week in the Finals. We start off on lanes 41 & 42 where the two last place teams battled for... well... something. With the fashionably late Ballz Out already having clinched dead last, this was more a battle to see whether Split It and Hit It could move up a notch. Unfortunately for Split It, Scott Murdock's 492 series and Will Pracht's speed-bowled MVB runner-up performance were enough earn Ballz Out their only sweep of the season and to thwart Split It's efforts to move up a rung. Dennis Blake's 474 series led his team in their valiant effort. These two teams will face each other again next Tuesday, where Split It still have a slim chance of moving to 6th.On lanes 43 & 44, Brunk Enough to Dowl came out firing on all cylinders. With Kody Karnes leading the way with his 643 series, Brunk Enough easily took Game #1 from opponents Murder, He Wrote. But that's when Hall of Fame hopeful Seth Gunderson stepped up with his 559 series – and this week's tentative Most Valuable Bowler performance out of Jonathan Vigliaturo – to reverse Brunk's momentum completely to win Game #2, Game #3, and total pins. The wins propel Murder into 3rd place with their 33.5-26.5 record while Brunk Enough remain in 6th place with their 27-33 record. The money Ken M. Wilson spent to get Carl's car sabotaged turned out to be a good investment, as a (mostly) re-invigorated Snakes on a Lane post-bowled their way into the record books. Led by a 680 series from #1 Power Ranked Carl Goetz and heavily assisted by a record-tying, MVB-earning performance from Wilson (more on that next week... hopefully), the Snakes slithered to a one-week-too-late-to-do-them-any-good clean sweep of Three Strikes and You're Out!. Despite Bob Brunker hitting a grand slam with his 554 series, it just wasn't enough to overcome Carl and Ken. The snakes move back into winning-record territory and climb to 4th place, while 3 Strikes drops 2 notches to 5th.Down on the final pair of lanes, the epic battle between the Dragon Balls and Will Strike if Provoked started out with a bang. Game #1 went to the Dragons behind anchor Ryan Doll's 590 series and a tentative #1 Power Ranked bowler performance out of Rob Kaszuba. Game #2 was basically a repeat with the Dragons sticking it to Will Strike, who was led Tuesday by Freda Schroeder's 518 series. Game #3 came down to the 10th frame with Will Strike pulling off a 7-pin victory to move within one game of wrapping up another championship. Will Strike remains in 1st place, of course, with their 39-21 record while the Dragon Balls are still within striking distance – needing a clean sweep next week to pull it off – with their 36-24 record. Bowlers finally admitted to The 200 Club this week after 3 days of waiting include: Kody Karnes (233, 213), Seth Gunderson (246), Ken M. Wilson (215, 233, 227), Carl Goetz (224, 265), and Ryan Doll (204)The official matchups in this season's Tournament of Champions are now set for the championship round. The starting lineup will be as follows:Carl Goetz (#1 Div 1) will face Michael Smith (#2 Div 4, +90Hcp)Kody Karnes (#2 Div 2) will face Phil Shroeder (#1 Div 3, +37Hcp)Dennis Blake (#1 Div 2) will face Jonathan Vigliaturo (#2 Div 3, +20Hcp)Ken M. Wilson (#2 Div 1) will face Mark DeVoe (#1 Div 4, +82Hcp)Everyone else gets to just kick back and enjoy the show! See you next Tuesday!

THIS WEEK'S MVB Ken Wilson Runner Up: (See Posting)	#1 POWER BOWLER Carl Goetz Runner Up: Ken Wilson	#1 H2H BOWLER Rob Kaszuba Runner Up: Ken M. Wilson
FROM THE GUTTER (GUTTER QUOTE) "I don't care if everyone loves her...I'm gonna kick that woman's ass." Bob Brunker, Mr. Good Sportsman, after watching teammate Anita Osthoff begin Game #2 with three opens.

The fourteenth installment of "The 11th Frame" features some interesting nuggets from our Top 25s collection, covering the accolades (and disappointments) of our current and not so-current league rollers.As mentioned already in this week's write-up – Kody Karnes was this week's #1 Power Ranked Bowler while Phil Schroeder's MVB performance set the stage for his team to do battle with the only other team left standing, the Dragon Balls. On the other hand, this was – without a doubt – the worst week we've seen all season long. So...for this week's edition of "The 11th Frame" we've decided to dig up the "achievements" that those involved would much rather forget. Ready to delve into the sketchy side of GutterAlley action? Check this out:INDIVIDUALS: Read the rest of this entry »