Anthony Simonsen, Andres Gomez Advance to PBA Playoffs Round of 8

Two more Round of 16 matches to air on May 6 at 9 p.m. ET p.m. on FS1

PORTLAND, Maine (April 29, 2019) – Anthony Simonsen of Little Elm, Texas and Colombia’s Andres Gomez filled two more spots in the PBA Playoffs Round of 8 after winning their Round of 16 Race to 2 Points matches that aired Monday on FS1 from Bayside Bowl.

Simonsen and Gomez joined Jason Belmonte of Australia, who leads the 2019 Go Bowling! PBA Tour season with four wins, and 2019 PBA Scorpion Championship winner Kris Prather of Plainfield, Illinois, who advanced by winning their Round of 16 matches that aired April 22 on FS1 and will meet in the Round of 8 on May 20.

Simonsen, who became the youngest to win two majors at 22 with his win in the PBA Players Championship in February, beat Page in the first game of their Race to 2 Points match, 237-214, but Page, a six-time tour winner with four top-five finishes this season, came back to win the second game, 226-214, to send the match to a ninth and 10th frame roll-off. Simonsen won the roll-off, 49-39, to advance to the Round of 8.

“The adrenaline was really flowing after the first game and I was a little too pumped up heading into the second game,” said Simonsen of dealing with the energy from the boisterous Bayside Bowl crowd. “When we got to the second game the crowd got a little quiet for some reason and that actually threw me off a little bit.

“Rhino got off to a good start in the second game, but I knew with one game in the bank I still had an opportunity in the roll-off,” Simonsen added. “I looked at the roll-off as another game – just make the best shots I can.”

In the second Round of 16 match, Gomez, a three-time tour winner, beat 2016 PBA Player of the Year EJ Tackett of Bluffton, Indiana in both games – 231-228 and 245-193 – to advance.

Gomez put together a string of five strikes heading into the 10th frame of the first game to overtake Tackett after being down 37 pins in the fifth frame.

“In the first half of the first game I was still trying to figure it out,” said Gomez. “I needed to do what I do best and that was slow down. I don’t have the power that these guys have out here on tour so having the right hand position and ball speed are critical for me to get a good ball reaction.”

Gomez found the right combination in the second game, striking in seven of the first nine frames to breeze past a struggling Tackett.

The winner of the Playoffs, which features the top 24 players in competition points after the first 13 Go Bowling! PBA Tour tournaments of the 2019 season, will earn a $100,000 first prize.

Round of 16 action continues on FS1 on May 6 and May 13 with both two-match telecasts airing at 9 p.m. EDT. The eight survivors will bowl Round of 8 Race to 2 Points matches on May 20 and May 27, reducing the field to the four survivors who will return to Portland for the semifinal and final rounds June 1-2. Both of those rounds will air live on FOX at noon Eastern.

To view a PBA Playoffs bracket click on

https://www.pba.com/Content/Images/playoffs/2019_PBA_Playoff_Bracket.pdf

PBA PLAYOFFS ROUND OF 16 RESULTS

Bayside Bowl, Portland, Maine

(aired Monday on FS1. Race to 2 Points format. Winners advance to Round of 8. Losers earn $5,000)

Match One

Game 1 – No. 4 Anthony Simonsen, Little Elm, Texas def. No. 13 Rhino Page, Orlando, 237-214.

Game 2 – Page def. Simonsen 226-214.

Simonsen won roll-off 49-39

Match Two

Game 1 – No. 21 Andres Gomez, Colombia def. No. 5 EJ Tackett, Bluffton, Ind., 231-228.

Game 2 – Gomez def. Tackett, 245-193

Remaining Round of 16 pairings (Race to 2 Points format based on one point per game won)

Match 13 – No. 15 Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas, vs. No. 2 Jakob Butturff, Tempe, Ariz. (airs May 6).

Match 14 – No. 23 Jesper Svensson, Sweden, vs. No. 7 Bill O’Neill, Langhorne, Pa. (airs May 6).

Match 15 – No. 14 Dom Barrett, England, vs. No. 3 Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla. (airs May 13).

Match 16 – No. 11 Kyle Sherman, O’Fallon, Mo., vs. No. 6 Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill. (airs May 13).

Round of 8 Pairings (Race to 2 Points format based on one point per game won)

Match 17 – No. 1 Jason Belmonte, Australia, vs. No. 9 Kris Prather, Plainfield, Ill. (airs May 20).

Match 18 – No. 4 Anthony Simonsen, Little Elm, Texas, vs. No. 21 Andres Gomez, Colombia (airs May 20).

Match 19 – Malott-Butturff winner vs. Svensson-O’Neill winner (airs May 27).

Match 20 – Barrett-Duke winner vs. Sherman-Rash winner (airs May 27).