Bettina Chase won her first Tiger Bay Area Amateur tour (BAAT) event on Saturday, Oct. 10. She was among a small field of 15 entrants who signed on to compete in the $500-added amateur event, sponsored by Lucasi Hybrid, Sterling Gaming, Stroke It Wear and Ray Martin. The event was hosted by Hammerheads in Holiday, FL, to whom tour director Stephanie Mitchell offered special thanks, along with the venue's manager Laura Willliams and owner Nora Lavoie.
Chase, competing in her fifth BAAT event this year, got by Michell Monk, the tour's current point leader, twice in three attempts to take home the first place prize. Monk, who'd won the event in March, when Chase finished third, and in May, when Chase was tied for seventh place with tour director Stephanie Mitchell, got into the hot seat match against Chase with an 8-1 win over Nicole Winters. Chase, in the meantime, held on to win a hill-hill match versus Shanelle Loraine. In the hot seat match that followed, Chase had to get to four wins, before Monk reached seven. She got to her four, stopping Monk at five to gain the hot seat.
Jamie Toennines and Stacey Lantz were waiting on the one-loss side for Winters and Loraine. Toennines had defeated Sheila Coleman 4-1 and Stephanie Mitchell 4-4 (Mitchell had to reach 6) to meet Winters. Lantz dropped Laura Williams into the tie for ninth place 5-2 and Niki Rasmussen into the tie for seventh place 5-4 to meet up with Loraine. Toennines got into the quarterfinals with a 5-2 victory over Winters, as Loraine joined her with a 4-2 win over Lantz.
In the quarterfinal 4-4 tie that gave Loraine the win (Toennines had to reach five), Loraine advanced to the semifinals against Monk. Loraine finished in third place on the heels of an 8-3 win that gave Monk a second chance against Chase.
It was a double elimination, handicapped second chance in which (as in the hot seat match) Chase had to reach four games before Monk reached seven. In the opening set, they went double hill before Monk held on to win at 7-3. Chase got out quickly in the second set and with only four games to win, defeated Monk outright 4-3 to take home first place.
