Before the 1st Frame #4 back at Open Championships after 2024 team title
July 09, 2025
PICTURED (from left): Jacob Yazell, Mike Conn, Steven Zimmer, Tim Foy Jr. and Matt Fitch
BATON ROUGE, La. – The race to the top spot in Regular Team at the 2024 United States Bowling Congress Open Championships was tightly contested, to say the least.
The top five team scores for the year were separated by just 32 pins. Several groups that fell outside of that number entered the final frame with their championship aspirations still intact.
When the dust settled in Las Vegas, the 3,373 posted by the members of Before the 1st Frame #4 remained at the top of the leaderboard.
The team – featuring Matt Fitch, Steven Zimmer, Jacob Yazell, Mike Conn and Tim Foy Jr. – withstood several late challenges for the lead, allowing all five teammates to record their first victory at the USBC Open Championships.
The talented crew rolled games of 1,071, 1,227 and 1,075 to take the lead by 10 pins with approximately a month to go at the 2024 event, with plenty of excitement coming down the stretch at the South Point Bowling Plaza.
From the leadoff position, Fitch delivered three strikes in the 10th frame – closing with the final five strikes overall – to get the team started.
Zimmer – who had the front 10 in Game 2 for 289 – capped a clean Game 3 with a spare and strike in the final frame. Yazell matched Fitch’s finish with three strikes of his own.
Conn’s 10th frame included a narrow 3-10 conversion and six count on the fill to hand the ball off to Foy for the chance at the lead.
With a strike up in the ninth frame, a spare and strike from Foy would get the team past the 3,363 rolled by Trip 4 Pro Shop by a pin. The talented two-hander didn’t leave anything to chance, delivering a strike on his first offering. He left a 10 pin his second shot and covered the spare to close the set and complete the team’s journey to the top of the standings.
Conn led the charge for Before the 1st Frame #4 with a 715 series. Zimmer had 705, Yazell added 700, Foy finished with 650 and Fitch had 603.
The team went on to move into second place in Team All-Events the following day at South Point and finished the year as the runner-up with a 10,120 total. Conn added two more top 10s to his collection for the year, finishing fifth in Regular All-Events (2,192) and sixth in Regular Singles (795).
The teammates recently returned to the Open Championships in 2025 at the Raising Cane’s River Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and were able to take in the experience of seeing their championship banner, receiving their championship watches and being presented with the Joe Norris Trophy.
Shortly after their on-lane presentation, the group had to turn its attention toward another quest at the lead in Regular Team.
Known as Before the 1st Frame 2024 for the 2025 Open Championships, the team registered games of 991, 1,066 and 955 in their return to finish with a 3,012 total. The final score currently places the group in the top 80 for Regular Team, as Phat Kidz Crew of Pekin, Illinois, holds the lead with 3,300.
Fitch led the team with 670 and was followed by Zimmer (629), Conn (599), Foy (560) and Yazell (554) at the River Center.
Watch the video below to hear from all five team members as they look back on last year’s winning performance in Las Vegas and share what it means to be reunited in Baton Rouge.
The Open Championships is celebrating its third trip to Baton Rouge in 2025 and scheduled to feature more than 58,000 bowlers and 11,600 five-player teams competing across 150 consecutive days at the River Center.
Visit us on Facebook at the official USBC Open Championships page.
BATON ROUGE, La. – The race to the top spot in Regular Team at the 2024 United States Bowling Congress Open Championships was tightly contested, to say the least.
The top five team scores for the year were separated by just 32 pins. Several groups that fell outside of that number entered the final frame with their championship aspirations still intact.
When the dust settled in Las Vegas, the 3,373 posted by the members of Before the 1st Frame #4 remained at the top of the leaderboard.
The team – featuring Matt Fitch, Steven Zimmer, Jacob Yazell, Mike Conn and Tim Foy Jr. – withstood several late challenges for the lead, allowing all five teammates to record their first victory at the USBC Open Championships.
The talented crew rolled games of 1,071, 1,227 and 1,075 to take the lead by 10 pins with approximately a month to go at the 2024 event, with plenty of excitement coming down the stretch at the South Point Bowling Plaza.
From the leadoff position, Fitch delivered three strikes in the 10th frame – closing with the final five strikes overall – to get the team started.
Zimmer – who had the front 10 in Game 2 for 289 – capped a clean Game 3 with a spare and strike in the final frame. Yazell matched Fitch’s finish with three strikes of his own.
Conn’s 10th frame included a narrow 3-10 conversion and six count on the fill to hand the ball off to Foy for the chance at the lead.
With a strike up in the ninth frame, a spare and strike from Foy would get the team past the 3,363 rolled by Trip 4 Pro Shop by a pin. The talented two-hander didn’t leave anything to chance, delivering a strike on his first offering. He left a 10 pin his second shot and covered the spare to close the set and complete the team’s journey to the top of the standings.
Conn led the charge for Before the 1st Frame #4 with a 715 series. Zimmer had 705, Yazell added 700, Foy finished with 650 and Fitch had 603.
The team went on to move into second place in Team All-Events the following day at South Point and finished the year as the runner-up with a 10,120 total. Conn added two more top 10s to his collection for the year, finishing fifth in Regular All-Events (2,192) and sixth in Regular Singles (795).
The teammates recently returned to the Open Championships in 2025 at the Raising Cane’s River Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and were able to take in the experience of seeing their championship banner, receiving their championship watches and being presented with the Joe Norris Trophy.
Shortly after their on-lane presentation, the group had to turn its attention toward another quest at the lead in Regular Team.
Known as Before the 1st Frame 2024 for the 2025 Open Championships, the team registered games of 991, 1,066 and 955 in their return to finish with a 3,012 total. The final score currently places the group in the top 80 for Regular Team, as Phat Kidz Crew of Pekin, Illinois, holds the lead with 3,300.
Fitch led the team with 670 and was followed by Zimmer (629), Conn (599), Foy (560) and Yazell (554) at the River Center.
Watch the video below to hear from all five team members as they look back on last year’s winning performance in Las Vegas and share what it means to be reunited in Baton Rouge.
The Open Championships is celebrating its third trip to Baton Rouge in 2025 and scheduled to feature more than 58,000 bowlers and 11,600 five-player teams competing across 150 consecutive days at the River Center.
Visit us on Facebook at the official USBC Open Championships page.