Field pared to eight on Rahm opening weekend

BUCYRUS — The 57^th Bill Rahm Bowling Tournament kicked off this past weekend. Two days of bowling reduced the original field from 16 to eight.

The tournament consists of the top 16 average bowlers in men’s leagues at Suburban Lanes.

On Saturday, opening day, eight matches established the winners and losers brackets in the double-elimination format. Random draw set the matchups and also established lane assignments.

Brock Lykens used the highest series of the day to defeat Mitch Long, 1015-980. Brayden Bruner dropped Bob Lear, 923-850, Mike Lear got comfortably past Tony Hupfer, 959-760, and Joel Butt Edged Todd Entenmann, 889-857.

In the closest match of the day, Jacob Dairy slipped past Nathan Monk, 921-917. Dave Shock got the best of Tod Spurlock Jr., 918-813, Defending champion Don McLaughlin beat Joe Powers, 974-858, and Terry Miller got by Eric Baldinger, 982-916. Miller threw the 29^th perfect 300 game in tournament history to help his cause.

In Sunday’s four winners’ bracket matches, Shock defeated Dairy, 918-882, McLaughlin edged Bruner, 825-813, Mike Lear dropped Butt, 944-913, and Miller stopped Lykens, 944-532.

The first session losers’ bracket matches saw Spurlock eliminate Monk, 982-957. Bob Lear bumped Powers from the field, 982-922, Entenmann swept Hupfer out of the tournament, 993-800, and Long squeaked by Baldinger, 927-923, sending Baldinger home.

In the second session, Spurlock eliminated Butt, 949-801, Lykens knocked Bob Lear from the field, 882-789, Dairy eliminated Entenmann, 856-736, and Long got bumped from the field by Bruner, 883-848.

The remaining eight bowlers resume the tournament on Saturday at 1 p.m. back at Suburban Lanes.