Austin Gamblers sweep their way to weekend Gambler Days win
Three Lone Star State natives helped lead the Austin Gamblers past the Oklahoma Freedom on Sunday, the final day of Gambler Days, in a 263.75-86.25 victory at Moody Center as Muleshoe's Dalton Kasel, Dallas' Austin Richardson and Rockdale's Ezekiel Mitchell each turned in qualified rides.
The victory secured the Gamblers' homestand victory as well as a perfect weekend mark of 3-0.
Kasel, who went 3-0 as well over the weekend, opened the Gamblers' scoring by mastering Washita Red, a bull that had thrown Kansas City Outlaws captain Marcus Mast on Friday. Kasel continued his string of strong rides by collecting 89.25 points, tying the Arizona Ridge Riders' Keyshawn Whitehorse for the highest single-ride point total for the weekend.
Richardson salted away weekend bragging rights for the Professional Bull Riders Team Series event when he rode Mighty Mike successfully for 87 points.
"Dalton’s ride was really important to get the ball rolling,” Richardson said. “We had tough luck with our next rider, Ramon (de Lima), who gave a great effort but got called for a touch violation against the No. 2 bull in the entire world. The Oklahoma Freedom hadn’t gotten a qualified ride yet, so when I scored it was a deal breaker.
"Everyone was great today. Having Ezekiel come in there and get a qualified ride on the re-ride was like the cherry on the milkshake.”
Mitchell got the crowd riled up when he was awarded a re-ride after being thrown by Crazy Party. Mitchell then finished out the day with a successful ride on Haymaker, good for 87.5 points and his first qualified ride of the season.
“My first ride, the bull hit the corner of the bucket chute, which changed his momentum and didn’t give me a fair shot to leave,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t know anything had happened until they told me they were looking for a re-ride. Once we got it, I just recomposed myself and got ready for the next one.
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"I didn’t know anything about the second bull, Haymaker, but Dalton Kasel told me he was good and he was right. It was a fun ride, and the energy around this building and in the city of Austin made it special. Last year we came in here at 2-0 and let it slip away from us. I knew when I woke up this morning that there was no way we were going to lose. We are taking care of unfinished business.”
The win not only gave the Gamblers the championship in their Gambler Days weekend homestand, but it also improved their overall mark to 12-1, putting them solidly in front of both Oklahoma (8-5) and Kansas City (8-5) in the PBR season standings.
In earlier results, the Kansas City Outlaws outlasted the Carolina Cowboys 173–83.75. Wingson Henrique de Silva rode Montana Mike for 86.25 points as the leadoff rider for the Outlaws, bettering an 83.75 effort put forward by Carolina's Cooper Davis atop Pain Killer. Closer Cassio Dias provided the exclamation point for Kansas City by mastering True Religion for 86.75 points.
The closest match of the day came when Arizona got a walk-off qualifying ride from Keyshawn Whitehorse, good for 89.25 points, just enough to overcome the 2022 defending champion Nashville Stampede 173.75–171.50. The game-winning effort from Whitehorse tied with Kasel for highest individual ride score of the weekend and broke a string of eight unsuccessful rides for the Arizona closer.
Brady Fielder’s successful ride atop Ah Hell was good for 86.25 points and was all the Texas Rattlers needed to blank the Missouri Thunder 86.25–0. The Rattlers went 1-2 for the weekend, leaving them with a 6-7 season mark. The young Missouri team went 0-3 during Gambler Days and is stuck at the bottom of the standings at 2-11.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin Gamblers win PBR homestand Gambler Days event
