Ignorance is bliss.

Ben Betchkal’s strategy to stay oblivious to the fickle nature of the leaderboard paid off as the 20-year-old held off all comers to capture the 46th annual Kenosha News Match Game Bowling Tournament Men’s Division title Friday night at Surfside Bowl.

“I told anybody that was watching me, ‘Do not tell me where I’m at,’ ” Betchkal said. “I didn’t want to know where I was at.

“I just wanted to keep tabs on all my games.”

The position round match became a formality because of the 110-point cushion Betchkal built by just keeping tabs on his games. The lean lefty had the second highest pinfall on Friday (1,915) and finished the two-day finals with a match record of 11-4-1 for a final point total of 1,035.

Dave Sjuggerud averaged 247 on Friday to move up from seventh place to second with 961 points. Tim Lewis, who lost to Betchkal in the final match, was third with 884 points. Ryan Yanel was a perfect 8-0 in matches on Friday and took fourth with 875 points.

Betchkal, a born-and-raised Kenoshan who is the youngest ever winner in the tournament, bowls in the Tuesday Night NBA Doubles League at Sheridan Lanes. He grew up around the alleys and took in numerous victories of his uncle, eight-time champion Lennie Boresch Jr.

“I always followed my uncle a lot because I was a big fan — still am,” Betchkal said. “I would watch him and say, ‘I’m going to bowl in this tournament one day.’”

Boresch, who entered Friday’s action 72 points behind Betchkal in second place, began the night with three victories and a 739 series to take a four-point lead (717-713) over Betchkal. But Boresch would lose his final four matches while averaging 208 to finish tied for fifth with Greg Brooks at 816 points.

Without knowing his lead had gone by the boards, Betchkal came out loose in Games 4 and 5 to push back on a hard-charging Lewis and Brooks. In Game 4, Lewis entered only 16 points back of Betchkal. But after an opening spare, Betchkal rolled seven consecutive strikes and closed out the 10th frame with a turkey for a 269-235 victory. The win vaulted Betchkal back into the top spot with a 16-point lead over Brooks.

He would not relinquish the lead again. In Game 5, Brooks caught splits in the fourth and seventh frames and Betchkal opened with a spare followed by six strikes. The match ended up a 257-175 in favor of Betchkal and all-but ended Brooks’ title hopes.

“(At the end of the season) I had a two-week period where I didn’t feel good,” Betchkal said. “But coming into this, I started practicing more and working on things and it showed out there.”

The rest of the field let Betchkal off the hook during his lone hiccup of the evening. In Game 6 he left the eighth frame open and managed more spares than strikes. Ed Seliga won the head-to-head match 237-194. However, his closest competitors, Boresch and Lewis, also dropped their match in Game 6 — to make the dent on the lead a modest one.

“I just had to tell myself to stay slow and throw a good shot, because I wasn’t releasing it good at all,” Betchkal said of Game 6. “I was playing with a little bit of carry issues and lane transition.”

Betchkal left his first frame open in the next match. But the fade was temporary. Ten strikes and one spare later, Betchkal had defeated Mike Bain 257-230 to make the final match for all intents and purposes a moot point.

The victory capped a stellar season for Betchkal, a sophomore studying graphic design at Robert Morris (Ill.) College. Betchkal rolled his first career 300 last November. The 2007 Junior Match Game Tournament champion then captured the big boys tournament the first time he qualified.

“It’s amazing,” Betchkal said. “I’m speechless.”

Pin drops: A.J. Hedges got the night off to a rousing start with a 300 game at his home lanes. Hedges opened with a 770 series, but finished 14th overall with 454 points. ... After Hedges’ perfect game, there were only four games over 270 — Sjuggerud (279), Capps (278), Jeff Jankowski (278) and Brooks (276). ... The previous youngest winner was Andrew Lovely, who was 22 when he won at Surfside in 2006. ... Yanel finished the two days with the best match record (12-3-1) of any competitor. ... Betchkal is also the nephew of three-time News champion Jeff Rampart (1998, ’85, ’84). Rampart’s wife Carol (Plourde), Boresch’s wife Jackie (Plourde) and Betchkal’s mother Patricia (Plourde) are sisters — three of Kenoshans Jack and Joyce Plourde’s five daughters.