PBA BOWLING SATURDAY & SUNDAY

Saturday & Sunday on ESPN: Oceanview at Falmouth PBA League Elias Cup Finals & More

PORTLAND, Maine – A big weekend of PBA competition on ESPN begins Saturday with an encore telecast of the 2018 State Farm CP3 PBA Celebrity Invitational, presented by GoBowling.com, and concludes Sunday with the Elias Cup finale of the sixth edition of OceanView at Falmouth PBA League competition at 1 p.m. ET, pitting the two-time champion Go Bowling! Silver Lake Atom Splitters against the Sysco Philadelphia Hitmen who are chasing their first PBA League championship in the raucous, fun-loving atmosphere of Bayside Bowl.

The Elias Cup finals, PBA’s final telecast in 38 years of continuous coverage on ESPN, also will include the awarding of the Mark Roth PBA League Most Valuable Player Award.

Preceding the Elias Cup finals, the big weekend of Go Bowling! PBA Tour television begins Saturday at 4 p.m. ET with the re-broadcast one of the PBA Tour’s favorite events, the CP3 Celebrity Invitational starring Houston Rockets All-Star Chris Paul and a few of his close friends along with a group of PBA stars. On Sunday, prior to the Elias Cup telecast, ESPN2 will re-air last Sunday’s PBA League semifinal round matches, starting at 11 a.m. ET, featuring matches between the Atom Splitters and the Barbasol Motown Muscle, and the Hitmen vs. the Shipyard Dallas Strikers.

The Atom Splitters roster, managed by Mark Baker, includes Swedish two-hander Jesper Svensson, 2015 Mark Roth MVP Dick Allen, PBA League newcomer AJ Johnson, Tom Daugherty and 2014 Mark Roth MVP Chris Barnes.

Philadelphia, managed by PBA Hall of Famer Jason Couch, will be bowling in the Elias Cup title match for the first time. The Hitmen are Ronnie Russell, Chris Loschetter, Dom Barrett, Tom Smallwood and Matt Sanders.

The Elias Cup will be decided using the same best-of-two-game format used in previous rounds with one variation: instead of one team match, the finals will feature two best-of-two matches, each of which will be decided by a one-ball roll-off if necessary. The new format presents the potential for a maximum of seven one-ball sudden-death roll-offs to decide ties.