PBA Spare Shots

FOR THREE “PBA BOWLING BRACKET” PLAYERS, KRETZER WAS NO UPSET
In 2009, the Professional Bowlers Association designed the Go RVing Match Play Championship as a bowling version of the NCAA’s “March Madness” basketball tournament. In the days leading up to the 2010 Match Play Championship, the PBA decided create to give bowling fans the same chance to “play the bracket game” millions of basketball fans have.

Within 48 hours of posting the first “PBA Bracket Battle,” 5,451 PBA fans went online and signed up. And while the Go RVing Match Play Championship proved to be a competition overwhelmed with upsets, three Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour fans predicted that Brian Kretzer of Dayton, Ohio, would win his first PBA Tour title in Norwich, Conn.

Picking the No. 27-seeded Kretzer to win led to a PBA Bowling Bracket victory for Aaron Hawkins of Oregon, Ohio, who accumulated 91 points to top Dan Bock of Albert Lea, Minn., by six points in the standings. Ken Gassel of Florissant, Mo., finished third with 84 points – and he was the third player to pick Kretzer for the title.

Michael Kay of Bolingbrook, Ill., finished fourth in the PBA Bracket Battle with 74 points, one ahead of Mike Johnson of Batavia, N.Y. Prizes for the five winners included a bowling pin autographed by all Round of 8 survivors in the Match Play Championship for Hawkins, a $100 gift certificate to the online PBA Store for Bock, an autographed PBA Tournament of Champions poster for Gassel, and complimentary one-year subscriptions to pba.com’s Xtra Frame for Kay and Johnson.

KRETZER BECOMES SIXTH FIRST-TIME SINGLES CHAMPION OF 2009-10 SEASON
With his Go RVing Match Play Championship victory, Brian Kretzer of Dayton, Ohio, became the sixth player to win his/her first PBA Tour title during the 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season. He joins Bill O’Neill (Chameleon Championship), Tom Smallwood (PBA World Championship), Anthony LaCaze (Earl Anthony Memorial), Kelly Kulick (PBA Tournament of Champions) and Mike Fagan (Dick Weber Open) as new singles champions. (Fagan was a previous champion in the 2009 PBA Exempt Doubles Classic with Danny Wiseman).

PBA stats keepers were scanning the records to try to find the last time the Tour crowned six new champions in a season. It has probably happened, but when? To be announced.

KULICK ADDS MALAYSIAN INTERNATIONAL OPEN TITLE TO HER RESUME
Kelly Kulick of Union, N.J., added a fourth significant title to her 2009-10 collection. The winner of the PBA Tournament of Champions, PBA Women’s World Championship and PBA Women’s Series presented by BOWL.COM Shark Championship added the Canon Malaysian International Open title to her credits on March 19. Kulick defeated Chien Hsiu-Lan of Chinese Taipei in a best-of-three-game title match, 184-211, 218-210, 211-201 to win the equivalent of roughly US$3,000.

UNDERDOGS KEEP PLAYER OF THE YEAR RACE UNCHANGED
Thanks to a swarming pack of underdogs, the Chris Schenkel PBA Player of the Year race remained basically unchanged heading into the final two events of the season – this week’s GEICO Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship and the Lumber Liquidators Marathon Championship.

Player of the Year points leader Bill O’Neill, runner-up Walter Ray Williams Jr., and third-place contender Mike Scroggins were all eliminated in surprising upsets in the Go RVing Match Play Championship in Norwich, Conn., failing to earn any Player of the Year points.

AGUIAR TOPS BARNES IN CHRIS BARNES CHALLENGE IV; PEPE WILL BE NEXT
Alex Aguiar of Dartmouth, Mass., not only upset Chris Barnes in the opening round of the Go RVing Match Play Championship, winning their Round of 64 best-of-seven-game match, 4-1, but confirmed his dominance over the PBA Tour superstar, 626-524, in Chris Barnes Challenge IV presented by Columbia 300. Aguiar’s win in the special challenge match at Norwich Bowling and Entertainment Center paid him a grand total of $3,000.

Aguiar, 30, who bowled his way through the Tour Qualifying Round to make it into the Go RVing field, rolled games of 224, 178 and 224 to Barnes’ games of 192, 166 and 166 in the Chris Barnes Challenge, which was contested on the tournament’s dual-pattern lane conditions (Shark condition on left lane, Cheetah on the right).

Barnes will now take his 2-2 record in four head-to-head challenge matches up against 21-year-old college student Anthony Pepe of Queens, N.Y., in Chris Barnes Challenge V during the GEICO Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship at AMF Babylon Lanes in West Babylon, N.Y. The three-game match will air exclusively online on pba.com’s Xtra Frame video-streaming service at 9 p.m. Eastern on Saturday.

Pepe, a criminal justice major at Nassau Community College, said is being sponsored in the contest by “someone who thinks I have what it takes… I’m going to try my hardest to beat him.” Pepe and his backer have posted the full-limit $5,000 stake to take on Barnes on the PBA Shark pattern with any PBA-approved equipment. The winner will walk away with $10,000.

FAMOUS PAIR OF MADRAS SLACKS NETS $150 FOR JDRG IN AUCTION
That designer pair of colorful Madras slacks made famous in the television duel between PBA Tour roommates Chris Barnes and Mika Koivuniemi in Columbus, Ohio, in 2009 sold for $150 in an online auction. The money was donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The name of the buyer wasn’t readily available.

DEVANEYS WELCOME DAUGHTER EVERLEY JEAN
The newest addition to the PBA family is Everley Jean DeVaney, born March 19, to Mike and Carrie DeVaney of San Diego. Everley Jean, at 7 pounds, 12 ounces and 19 inches in length, joins brother Owen Michael in the DeVaney family.