By NOLAN HUGHES
PBA Communications
PORTLAND, Maine — The PBA’s All-Star Weekend will hit the lanes from Bayside Bowl in Portland, Maine on Saturday and Sunday. The top performers from the PBA League will compete in a pair of thrilling events in front of bowling’s most passionate fans.
The roster features a host of major champions, two PBA League rookies and a pair of Hall of Famers — plus several more players destined for future enshrinement.
The Strike Derby will air at 1 p.m. July 16, while the All-Star Clash will broadcast at 1:30 p.m. July 17. Each winner will receive $25,000. Both will air on FS1.
During last week’s PBA League action, the Portland Lumberjacks won the Anthony Division Finals, led by the Hall of Famer Wes Malott.
In the Carter Division Finals, the Dallas Strikers emerged victorious to extend Norm Duke’s final PBA League competition.
Last Sunday, the hometown Lumberjacks captured their third straight Elias Cup in an exhilarating 2-0 comeback against the Strikers.
Portland’s recent dominance is unprecedented in the PBA League’s nine-year history.
STRIKE DERBY
Players will have two minutes to throw as many strikes as possible across two lanes. If there are any ties, the player with the longest string of strikes will advance.
The 12 players who rolled the most strikes from the PBA League’s Anthony Division and Carter Division qualifying advanced to the Strike Derby. The winners of each division’s bracket will meet in the finals to determine the champion.
The six players representing the Anthony Division are Packy Hanrahan, Mitch Hupé, Wes Malott, Martin Larsen, Darren Tang and Kyle Troup. Hupé rolled the lone perfect game during qualifying, notching 300 in the very first game.
From the Carter Division will be Matt Ogle, Santtu Tahvanainen, Andrew Anderson, Matt Russo, Tommy Jones and François Lavoie. Tahvanainen and Russo made their PBA League debuts this season.
Anderson, the defending champion and 2018 PBA Player of the Year, will look to reclaim his title.
ALL-STAR CLASH
The highest scoring player from each team during PBA League qualifying advanced to the All-Star Clash, which will feature the riveting one-ball eliminator format. All players will throw a single ball and the player with the lowest pin count will be eliminated. Any ties will be decided by a roll-off.
Motown’s Mitch Hupé, Portland’s Packy Hanrahan, L.A. X’s Jakob Butturff, NYC’s Darren Tang, and Milwaukee’s Ryan Ciminelli advanced from the Anthony Division. Butturff will replace an injured Martin Larsen.
From the Carter Division will be Dallas’ Matt Ogle, Las Vegas’ Matt Russo, Chicago’s Jake Peters, Silver Lake’s Jesper Svensson and Waco’s Jason Sterner.
Ogle led all players with a score of 1,500, an average of 250 for six games. Hupé led the Anthony Division with a 1,380 series.
Portland’s Malott won the event in 2020.