FAIRLAWN — Missed spares, splits, the unpredictability of the right lane and, of course, the balls no one really talks about (urethane) made for a long day for three competitors during Sunday’s stepladder finals of the KIA PBA Tournament of Champions at AMF Riviera Lanes.
No. 5 seed Shawn Maldonado was able to survive into the semifinal round thanks to some unfortunate circumstances for his opponents during his first two matches.
In the opener, the 35-year-old Sugarland, Texas, right-handed two-hander was able to get into a one-ball rolloff with 20-time PBA Tour winner and No. 4 seed Tommy Jones despite opens in his final two frames.
“The right lane got so tricky, it was like what am I going to do here?” Maldonado said. “I missed to the right and it wouldn’t hook, and I missed to the left, and it would overhook.”
“I never really had it from the start. It was just me grinding it out.”
Maldonado started with five straight strikes and added another one in the seventh after a 10-pin spare against Jones. Jones, a 43-year-old Simpsonville, S.C., right-hander who was seeking his second TOC title, struck on five of his first seven shots.
With both using urethane equipment, things changed late in the match. Jones left a 2-pin spare in the eighth frame and a 7-pin in the 10th. He missed the latter to give Maldonado a chance.
Maldonado, who missed a 10-pin spare in the ninth, needed a mark to win. Instead, he left a 2-4-10 split, getting two to produce a 216-216 tie and a one-ball rolloff.
Jones went first, but again left a 2-4-10 split for a 7-count.
“He missed.a spare and I missed a spare, and you can’t do that. I got a break, but had an unfortunate incident there and didn’t get the job done,”: added Jones, who was distracted by a commentator’s voice during his delivery. “It happens and it is what it is. I liked that first shot in the 10th frame, but you have to make a spare and that’s all on me.”
Maldonado just needed eight or higher to advance. He got the 8-count on a 2-10 split.
“I was surprised by the ball reaction. I moved three boards to the right and threw it really good to the same spot,” Maldonado said. “But I got the same ball reaction I got in the 10th. It was freaky.”
In his next match against Rash, Maldonado moved away from urethane to reactive resin. But, according to No. 3 seed Sean Rash, the damage had been done to the condition.
“The lanes got squarely tight down lane because of the equipment the two previous competitors used,” said Rash, who also was seeking his second TOC title after making the finals for the past three years. “My goal was to hook the ball around them. I could tell at the end of the first match the ball reactions were getting worse.”
Rash started with three strikes, but then had back-to-back 2-8-10 and 2-10 splits. He also left a 4-7-10 split in the eighth en route to a 212-187 loss.
“The first two splits I thought I threw well, but they just wiggled. So I made a physical adjustment and threw two good shots and struck,” Rash said. “The shot on the left lane shocked me when it split again. Shots like that didn’t split during the week.
“I lost that game because of splits, I was hurting myself, not because I got outbowled.”
Maldonado’s luck ran out against Dom Barrett, when the Englishmen missed on only one shot en route to a 279-201 win.
“The match against Dom I thought I was moving to the right spot for the transition, but it ended up being the wrong line,” Maldonado said. “At the end of Game 2 they were getting tricky. Against Rash I didn’t have an issue with the left lane … the ball was shaping and getting to the pins well.
“I don’t know what happened to Sean. I thought he had a good look on the left lane, but it got tricky for him to give me a chance.”
By the time Kris Prather entered the fray for the title match against Barrett, he had a game plan.
“Nobody had played as far left as I was going, so there shouldn’t have been any early hook,” Prather said. “But the breaks made the difference.”
NOTEBOOK
HIGH SCHOOL SUPPORT: Rash went out of his way to fire up his support group of Avon Lake High School bowlers prior to his match. “They were just a tremendous group that watched me bowl. Kids came out all week to support eight pros and, hopefully, they were as excited to see them as I was,” Rash said. The PBA said 160 high school bowlers came out in support of PBA pros during the event.
WEARING THE BLACK HAT: Rash knows the reputation he has built, stemming from remarks earlier this season that led to a one-tournament suspension. “I might be an asshole and villain to some people, but I know how important the next generation is to our sport and how important it is to give back to that group,” Rash said. “My old college coach told me to take a negative and turn it into a positive. You just have to move on and learn from it.”
TRIPLE CROWN WINNERS: Barrett enters an elite PBA club with his win. Other Triple Crown winners include Billy Hardwick, Johnny Petraglia, Mike Ably, Pete Weber, Norm Duke, Chris Barnes and Jason Belmonte.
PRO-AM RESULTS: Olmsted Falls’ Mitch Miller won the adult pro-am with 811, including handicap. He won $600. The youth winner was Kayden Rodriguez of Medina with 926, including handicap, good for $275 in SMART scholarship funds. The pro-am drew 182 entries.
STATS: There were 11 past TOC champions in the field, six Hall of Famers and 11 past Players of the Year. … Maldonado was the only non-major winner in the stepladder finals. He has now finished third twice, the other time coming in the 2016 U.S. Open. … Prather had the top 42-game average among the finalists at 233.21. Everyone else was 228.02 or higher. … Prather also had the top match-play record at 17-6-1, with Rash second at 17-7. … This was the second time Barrett and Prather had met in a stepladder finals match, with Barrett also winning during the 2018 U.S. Open 226-222. … This was the first time in five events that Belmonte had not made the stepladder finals. He has two titles this season and finished 10th.