Tom Grose, the 10-year-old from Pahrump, finished his second consecutive Nevada State Horseshoe Pitching Association tournament with an undefeated record after winning all five games in the Sundown Showdown event in Las Vegas.
The NSHPA held their Sundown Showdown tournament at Lone Mountain Regional Park on Saturday.
Twenty-three pitchers participated in the event. They were split into three classes of six players and a fourth class of five players.
In the A class, Lawrence Workman took home the win with a 4-1 record. His only loss of the tournament came against Scott Hardy.
Workman finished with the second highest point total of the tournament with 160 points. He threw 76 ringers in his 200 attempts, good for a ringer percentage of 38%.
Workman’s best game came in a win over Kasey Dilger by a score of 46-8. He threw a single-game high of 21 ringers in his 40 attempts against Dilger.
Hardy and Dennis Anderson finished in a tie for second place with records of 3-2 in the tournament.
Anderson won the tiebreaker and took home second place due to finishing the tournament with a higher overall ringer percentage. Anderson finished with a 34.5% compared to Hardy’s 32.5% for the tournament.
Anderson ended the tournament with 142 total points and threw 69 ringers.
With Anderson winning the tiebreaker, that meant Hardy finished in third place for the A class.
He finished the tournament with 146 total points and threw 65 ringers in his 200 throws throughout the event.
In the B class, Mark Kaczmarek got the top spot. He finished with a 4-1 record in the tournament.
Kaczmarek’s lone loss came in his matchup with Jim Magda. Magda came away with a 35-21 victory.
Kaczmarek finished the tournament with 142 points and threw 59 ringers, good for a ringer percentage of 29.5%.
There was a three-way tie for third place in the B class.
Lathan Dilger, Dan Dunn and Magda all tied with identical 3-2 records.
Dilger won the tiebreaker with his ringer percentage of 30% for the tournament. He led the B class in ringer percentages.
Dilger finished the tournament with 143 total points and threw 60 ringers on his 200 throw attempts.
Dilger and Kaczmarek were the only pitchers in the B class who finished with a higher ringer percentage in the tournament than their average percentage when they came in.
Dilger is averaging 26.86% while Kaczmarek is averaging 28.42% for the season.
The third-place finisher of the B class was Dan Dunn. He won the tiebreaker over Magda.
Dunn finished the tournament with a class-high 145 total points and threw 56 ringers. This is his second top-3 finish of the season and his first since the opening tournament in February.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Tom Grose won his class.
Grose finished in the top spot of the C class after ending the tournament with a 5-0 record.
This is the third tournament of the season, and the second consecutive tournament, where Grose finished undefeated.
Grose now has the most undefeated tournaments of the season in the NSHPA. Joseph Kalache and George Mallory are the only other pitchers with multiple undefeated tournaments, both having just two.
Grose finished with a tournament-high in both ringers, with 78, and total points, with 229. His best game of the day came against Don Brown when he won by a score of 56-16 and threw 20 of his 40 attempts as ringers.
He finished the tournament with a ringer percentage of 39%.
There was a tie for second place in the C class between Mike Dedeic and Don Brown. Both pitchers finished with a 3-2 record, however, Dedeic received second place due to having more total points throughout the tournament.
Dedeic ended the day with 141 points and threw 34 ringers.
Despite throwing three more ringers than Dedeic, Brown finished the tournament with just 117 points. He would end the event with a third place finish in the C class.
In the fourth and final group of the tournament, the D class, Dennis Ahrens joined Grose with an undefeated 4-0 tournament.
He finished the event with 124 total points and threw 26 ringers in his 200 attempts. Ahrens ended up with a ringer percentage of 13%, good for second in the class.
Danielle Workman came in second place in the D class. She finished with a 3-1 record. Her lone loss came against Ahrens by a score of 40-22.
Workman had a class-high 132 total points in the tournament and threw a class-high 27 ringers.
The third place finisher for the D class was Jefferson Counts. He finished the day with an even 2-2 record.
Counts ended his tournament with 108 points and threw 19 ringers.
Following the tournament, all class winners received a class champion patch. Because Lawrence Workman won the A class, which is the top class, he received a tournament champion patch.
The NSHPA will be off this upcoming Saturday, July 2, but will hold their next tournament on Saturday, July 9.
Instead, there will be a non-sanctioned tournament on Sunday, July 3 at Amargosa Valley Park.
This tournament will be played using a doubles format. All pitchers wishing to participate must be signed in by 5:30 p.m. and pay their $20.00 entry fee.
There will also be a Southern Nevada Horseshoe Pitching Association tournament a Petrack Park in Pahrump on Monday, July 4. The Pahrump 4th of July Extravaganza tournament will beginning at 6 p.m.
The NSHPA Ringer Night Roundup tournament on July 9 will take place at Lone Mountain Regional Park. All pitchers should be signed in by 5:30 p.m.
If you have any questions about the tournament, feel free to contact NSHPA president Lathan Dilger at 435-691-3857 or email him at lathandilger@gmail.com.
Contact Danny Smyth at dsmyth@pvtimes.com and follow @the_dannysmyth on Twitter.