The Sauce Returns…

First Impressions
The Sauce rolls heavy, needs oil. Can I use this on house? Answer coming shortly.

Our Testers:
Tamer Elbaga (Lefty)
Style: Tweener
RPM: 375 rpm
PAP: 5 & 3/8 up
Average Speed: 18.5 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: low
Axis rotation: medium/high
Test Equipment: 14 Pounds
Layout: 65 x 5 x 40
Intent: Medium/long roll with a medium transition at the breakpoint

James Kasee (Righty)
Style: Power Player
RPM: 425 rpm
PAP 4 1/2 & 1/4 down
Average Speed: 19 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: 19 degrees
Axis rotation: 60 degrees
Test Equipment: 15 Pounds
Layout: 65 x 5 x 40
Intent: Medium/long roll with a medium transition at the breakpoint

Bryan Hoffman (Righty)
Style: Higher Tilt Stroker
RPM: 280 rpm
PAP: 4 1/4 & 1/8 down
Average Speed: 17.5 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: high
Axis rotation: medium
Test Equipment: 14 Pounds
Layout: 65 x 4.5 x 35
Intent: Medium roll with a slow transition at the breakpoint

Thanks to Jeff Smith and Pure It Bowling for drilling our equipment.
Buy the Hammer The Sauce at PureItBowling.com.
Thanks to Limerick Bowl in Limerick, PA.

“Keep in mind that coverstock accounts for 70% of ball reaction, but the core creates the dynamic shape of the reaction. Your driller will alter the shape to suit your game.”

Test Pattern:
THS: 40ft, 23ml
Sport: Boardwalk: 35ft, 24 ml, 2:1 ratio

Value
B+
This is a very strong solid symmetric. Value proposition seems pretty high to us despite being in the high performance category.

Specs
The Hammer The Sauce uses the Modified Contrusion (symmetrical) core inside the Aggresion Solid CFI coverstock.
15 pound = RG of 2.47, diff of .049
14 pound = RG of 2.50, diff of .050
Coverstock finish: 500/2000 Abralon

Overall
THS: B
Sport: B+
Let me quickly describe what we saw with the Hammer The Sauce. It’s a very strong ball that uses Hammer’s strongest coverstock. That means it needs oil. At the same time, it’s not one that generates lots of angle. Therefore, the ideal line will be more direct but on a pattern that has some volume. We saw a lumbering motion that honestly I didn’t anticipate would work very well on our house shot. It turns out that we all struck a lot. The house shot friction makes the ball feel a bit slow and laboring but in the meantime, it touches the headpin and they all go down. To my eye, this was a reaction I thought I would leave a bunch of 7 pins with on house and do well with on sport. Well as you see from the video, it carried almost everything on house even while it might have looked slower reacting. The shots that got into a roll drove hard. The shots that didn’t still tickled them all down. Move the breakpoint in and it just barrels through the pocket. I didn’t have to open my angles a ton which was a good match for this ball since it felt like it might not make it up the hill if I did. I am looking forward to throwing this on sport…see later.

Onto James and while he may have anticipated the same thing, he also carried everything in site. We honestly didn’t instantly think house shot killer in the first few throws but it carried the light hits and if you chased in and moved your breakpoint in ever so slightly you just saw stronger and stronger drive, owing to the fact that this is a very strong cover and low RG core. James struck an insane amount with this ball. You can tell how strong it is when a leak outside does nothing as the ball completely burns up. But even after the shoot, he continued with it as the lanes broke down and he surely threw the equivalent of a perfect game’s worth of strikes.

Next was Bryan. We don’t always know what to expect but experience gives us good guidance. I honestly thought Bryan might see too much laboring and pushing him into oil where the ball doesn’t have energy to hit. Boy was I wrong. I mean I wasn’t wrong about the shape I expected. However, again he had great carry. Flush to start. Light shots carried everything off the wall. The Sauce just did the business. Everyone was smiling after the test. The truth is we actually had so little footage for “shots that didn’t make the cut”, not sure if I’ll have it in this video.

Sport Shot
We tested on the 35ft Boardwalk pattern. You might wonder why such a strong ball on a short pattern but for me this is an ideal test pattern. You play more direct and now really see the backend motion of a stronger ball. For me, same deal, all strikes. Made me super comfortable when I was struggling with other equipment in league on the same pattern. Really impressive drive.
For James, just about the same. He struck pretty easily although the shots you see here are the light swisher type. We all enjoy carrying those shots, especially on tough patterns.
Finally Bryan and he really didn’t have much trouble finding and crushing the pocket with The Sauce.

Final Thoughts
I know I gave this ball a little lower house shot score and perhaps it should be higher. The thing is my eye sees a motion that has risk to be too strong on house shots and I grade motion along with carry. On Sport, I want to say it really shined. The truth is the ball worked great for every bowler for both house and sport. This is a particular type of roll, heavy rolling and slower to friction. So if you like playing more direct angles, Hammer’s The Sauce could be an absolute killer for you.