PBA SPARE SHOTS

PBA Spare Shots

PBA XTRA FRAME ON FLOBOWLING.COM MAKES ITS DEBUT SATURDAY

PBA’s exclusive Xtra Frame live streaming coverage of the preliminary rounds of the U.S. Women’s Open from Orlando, Fla., on xtraframe.tv wraps up on Friday, with PBA Xtra Frame on FloBowling.com making its debut Saturday from Aurora, Ill., where the PBA Xtra Frame Parkside Lanes Open gets underway with a unique qualifying format that will award players with “bonus pins” based upon how well they perform each game on their respective pairs of lanes.

 

That means current Xtra Frame subscribers who want to watch this weekend’s Parkside Lanes Open need to activate their FloBowling accounts as soon as possible. If you are a current subscriber and didn’t get an email from FloSports regarding the simple step to activate your new account, the first place to go is: https://www.flobowling.com/claim-account. If you can’t find your email, send an email to: support@flosports.tv (don’t forget to check your “spam” folder first to see if the email was filtered into that folder).

 

For those of you who are curious about FloSports, whether you are a paid subscriber or not, you are invited to preview free content on FloBowling.com which includes features on Walter Ray Williams Jr.’s experimentation with two-handed bowling, Sean Rash’s behind-the-scenes role with the XF Parkside Lanes Open; Andrew Anderson’s breakout season as a second-year PBA member; a nice feature about Wes Malott’s rise to PBA stardom; podcasts, video features, the live streaming schedule, and more.

 

As the transition to FloBowling continues, PBA fans can also follow FloBowling on Facebook and @FloBowling on Twitter and Instagram, which also is free and where features and conversation about the PBA is growing daily for everyone – not just paid subscribers.

 

Live coverage of the PBA Xtra Frame Parkside Lanes Open, which will be available exclusively to FloBowling subscribers, is the fourth of eight exclusive PBA Xtra Frame tournaments that are part of the 2018 Go Bowling! PBA Tour schedule. The Illinois tournament includes qualifying rounds Saturday and Sunday leading into a semifinal round and stepladder finals on Monday, July 2.

 

The PBA50 Tour will make its PBA Xtra Frame on FloBowling debut July 17-20 with coverage of the PBA50 River City Extreme Open, presented by Ebonite, from River City Extreme in Monticello, Minn.

 

AUSTRALIAN NETWORK TELEVISION PROFILES JASON BELMONTE

Bowling has never been a “headline” sport in Australia, but Jason Belmonte is slowly by steadily changing that. Most recently, according to Australia’s Lynne Clay, the Australia Broadcast Company – Australia’s “ABC-TV” - has recently aired a segment on its popular 7.30 Report profiling the world’s top-ranked bowler.

 

The 34-year-old two-handed star from Orange in New South Wales has achieved unprecedented success with dozens of titles in national and international tournaments, re-writing the sport’s record books, becoming the first player ever to win the USBC Masters on four occasions, and sweeping the PBA’s two most defining statistical categories for 2017 – official earnings and scoring average, which included a record 229.39 scoring pace for the full season.

 

Clay noted the 7.30 Report is billed as providing the best analysis of local, national and international events from an Australian perspective and is streamed live on iView. The program is watched by a national audience of many millions. Here is a link to the segment: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/meet-the-world’s-number-one-tenpin-bowler,/9847034.

 

PBA REGIONAL UPDATE: CASTILLO, LAVOIE CAPTURE FIRELAKE DOUBLES TITLE

Dino Castillo of Highland Village, Texas, and Canadian Francois Lavoie, now living in Wichita, Kan., teamed up to win the PBA FireLake Grand Casino Hotel & Resort Southwest Doubles at FireLake Bowling Center Sunday, defeating the Houston area team of D.J. Archer and Shawn Maldonado, 436-390, in the title match.

 

For Castillo, the win was his seventh in PBA Regional competition while Lavoie’s number of PBA Regional titles is up to six following his second victory at FireLake. Each collected $2,000 for the win.

 

The winning team had a long road to the finals after qualifying in seventh position while Archer and Maldonado earned byes to the Round of Four by leading the eight-game qualifying round. Castillo and Lavoie defeated another Canadian, PBA rookie Mitch Hupe’, and his amateur partner, Marc Heninger from Tangonoxie, Kan., 2-0, in the best-of-three-game Round of 8.

 

In the Round of 6, Castillo and Lavoie out-battled Oklahoma’s James Cantere from Norman and Jeff Hatt of Midwest City, 2-1. Castillo and Lavoie then overwhelmed the No. 2 qualifiers from Amarillo, Texas, Mason Edmondson and Tyler Albracht, 2-0, in the semifinal round while Archer and Maldonado eliminated a pair of two-handed players, Malaysia’s Zulmazran Zulkifli and Trey Ford III of Bartlesville, Okla, 2-1.

 

● Anthony Pepe of Elmhurst, N.Y. defeated defending champion Darren Andretta of Wantagh, N.Y. 253-226, to win the PBA Homefield Bowl Eastern Open presented by MOTIV at Homefield Bowl in Yonkers, N.Y., Sunday. 

 

Pepe compiled a 7-5 match play record and 4,828 pins for 20 games, including match play bonus pins, to qualify first for the stepladder finals by 78 pins over Andretta. Pepe then started the championship match with four strikes, but an open frame in the fifth saw his lead shrink to seven pins. Recovering quickly, he rolled another five strikes to clinch the victory along with a $3,000 prize and his fourth regional title.

 

Andretta advanced to the championship match by defeating John Furey of Howell, N.J., 226-211, after Furey defeated Patrick Allen of Elmwood Park, N.J., 233-198, in the opening match.

 

● Aaron Beaver of Goshen, Ind. defeated amateur Conner Weber of Wayne, Mich., 267-178, to win $1,500 and his first PBA title in the PBA Pro Bowl West Central/Midwest Challenge presented by Storm at Pro Bowl West in Ft. Wayne, Ind., on Saturday. Challenge events are open to PBA members without a PBA title or non-members who have never won a PBA event.

 

Beaver downed Brian Hall of Macedon, N.Y., 218-199 while Weber edged Doug Henry of Columbus, Ind., 180-176, to set up the championship match.

 

● PBA Regional competition in July begins this weekend with the PBA50 Ultra Star Multi-Tainment Center at Harrah’s Cherokee South Open, a new PBA Regional event, in Cherokee, N.C.

 

● The only event on the July 6-8 PBA Regional calendar is the PBA50 Cecil Raymond Memorial presented by Ebonite at Brunswick Deptford Lanes in Deptford, N.J.

 

● The July 13-15 PBA Regional schedule includes the PBA50 Fairborn Central Classic presented by Roto Grip at Bowl 10 Fairborn in Fairborn, Ohio; the PBA Allstate Tony Grigat Midwest Open presented by Columbia 300 at Poplar Creek Bowl in Hoffman Estates, Ill., and the PBA Beltline Lanes Columbia Baker Doubles South Open in Columbia, S.C.

 

● Over the July 20-22 weekend, PBA Regional events will include the PBA50 Parkway Lanes Eastern Open presented by Roto Grip in Elmwood Park, N.J.; the PBA Angola Central/Midwest Open presented by Ebonite at Angola Bowl in Angola, Ind.; the PBA Spring Hill Lanes South Open presented by Track in Spring Hill, Fla.; the PBA Fort Sill Southwest Open at Twin Oaks Bowling Center in Fort Sill, Okla.; the PBA, PBA50 and PBA-PWBA Secoma Lanes Northwest/West Open tripleheader in Federal Way, Wash., and the PBA50 Beverly Lanes Midwest/Central Open presented by Roto Grip in Arlington Heights, Ill.

 

● Closing out the July schedule of PBA Regional competitions will be the PBA50 Ned Micelli Memorial at Herrill Lanes in New Hyde Park, N.Y., over the July 27-28 weekend.

 

● For complete PBA Regional schedules, rules and entry information, visit pba.com, open the “schedules” tab and click on PBA Regional Tours to find the event(s) in your area…and remember, you can follow “live scoring” for all PBA Regional events on pba.com (easily accessible for Apple device users using the PBA app).

 

QUICK NOTES

● Don’t forget: Fan voting is now open to select the “best bowler” in the 2018 ESPY competition.Click on this link (http://www.espn.com/espys/story/_/page/voting54/best-athlete-sport) and look for the “best bowler” ballot which includes Jason Belmonte, Rhino Page, Tom Smallwood and Jesper Svensson. The winner will be announced when the ESPY shows airs on ESPN on Wednesday, July 18.