By BILL SNIER
FAIRLAWN — Marshall Kent expected changes at AMF Riviera Lanes on Tuesday night after leading the morning shift.
It’s exactly what he saw during the second round of qualifying for the PBA Tournament of Champions on the 40-foot Don Johnson oil pattern.
“They hooked a lot more and you had to play different angles,” said the 31-year-old Clarkston, Mich., right-hander who continues to lead the 68-player field after 12 games with 2,740 total pinfall, an average of 228.33.
“There was a lot more reactive resin going down the lanes and not as much urethane. They played completely different tonight, but in a good way because, pair-to-pair, they weren’t as drastically different.”
Kent, who led after the initial six-game qualifying block with 1,389, shot 1,351 on the second shift. He is the lone player in the field not to shoot below 200 through 12 games.
“That’s pretty cool,” Kent said of his 200 run using a combination of the Ebonite GB 5 and GB 4 Hybrid plus the Radical Breakaway. “They played pretty flat tonight so from pair to pair and lane to lane they weren’t nearly as different. The Breakaway got me a lot of pins on this block.”
Greensburg, Pa., right-hander B.J. Moore, who sat 11th after the opening block, shot a second-round high 1,376 to jump into second (2,683), followed by right-hander Bill O’Neill (2,659) and a pair of two-handed righties — Matthew Ogle (2,654) and Anthony Simonsen (2,653).
Simonsen, who sat 16th after the first round after opening with 177 and finishing with 174, said it was nice knowing that this tournament was not producing “a strike fest.”
“When you bowl 170 or 180 to end a block, it’s easy to get frustrated with that,” said Simonsen, who sits fourth on the PBA points list and owns one title this season.
“But knowing you can bowl 240 and get right back into it also makes a difference. The ultimate thing is that I bowled 60 pins higher than this morning, but I had way higher games in the first (267) and last games (223). I just didn’t strike as much in the middle.”
Simonsen started the second shift using urethane, planning on at least one game, but actually using it for two.
“I started with a different game plan on the fresh. It wasn’t my best on the back part of that second game, but I still managed 213,” Simonsen said. “Just getting 220 is a good score this week.
“I you get to a pair that’s tricky and get close to 220, hopefully the next pair you can get to 240 or 250. Then, if you get another tricky pair, hopefully you can bowl close to 200 if possible.”
Simonsen didn’t have a good feel in one of the new balls he had drilled up at the break, so he used another Storm Road for the final three games of the block. He ended up with the fourth highest set of 1,363.
He plans on starting Wednesday with urethane again.
“I’m going to start getting into where they really hook and try to be ready and stay smooth,” Simonsen said. “Some pairs you have to play right and some you have to play left. I’m going to try to have a road map throughout the house.”
O’Neill, who won the season-opening PBA Players Championship, said winning the TOC is atop his bucket list.
“When I first started bowling out here, you couldn’t bowl unless you had a national title, so I couldn’t bowl the tournament for like four years,” O’Neill told pba.com. “It’s a special tournament for me. I’ve never been able to win; I lost to Kris Prather here in 2020. It’s just one that I want on my résumé pretty bad.”
As for Kent, it’s more of the same for the final qualifying round.
“Just keep an open mind and try to make some shots,” Kent said. “But I’m scared to look at my spare shooting (his conversion rate was 84 percent for the day). That’s something I have to improve.”
MAKING MOVES
Another bowler who made a big move in the second round was 2024 back-to-back winner and defending PBA Player of the Year EJ Tackett, who shot the lone 300 of the day in Game 12.
Tackett, who was in the cut spot of 24th place after the opening block with an average of 210.17, shot 1,370 over six games during the night shift to jump to seventh place overall with 2,632. Tackett did not miss a spare on the second shift and struck on 63 percent of his shots, getting nine or better on 88 percent of his releases.
Ogle, who sat 19th after the opening round, shot just one pin less than Moore on the second shift to make his move up.
See complete scores here:
https://www.r2sports.com/website/standings.asp?TID=41840
PBA50 BEGINS
Meanwhile at Vision Lanes in Westland, Mich., Mika Koivuniemi averaged 233.29 to take the lead after the first seven games of the PBA50 Hamtramck Singles Classic Open, the first senior tour event of the season.
Koivuniemi shot 255 his final game to finish with 1,633 for the opening qualifying round, just five pins ahead of John Janawicz, with Troy Stus, the son of PBA Hall of Famer Gene Stus, sitting third (1,603).
The entire 108-player field will return for seven more qualifying games Wednesday before the top one-third of the field moves on to the Advancers Round at 9 a.m. Thursday.
From there, the top 24 advance to bracket match play culminating with the stepladder finals at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
See complete scores here:
https://www.r2sports.com/website/standings.asp?TID=41958
NOTEBOOK: Defending champion Jason Belmonte struggled during both TOC sessions and stands 29th with 2,467, 42 pins out of the cut. He had a high game of 232 on the day. … The four Ohioans in the field — Urbana lefty Graham Fach (27th, 2,476), Springfield two-handed righty Chris Via (32nd, 2,448), Parma right-hander Patrick Dombrowski (44th, 2,405) and Cincinnati senior right-hander Brian Himmler (64th, 2,264) — are trying to make the cut. The cut number after 12 games was at 2,509, an average of 209.08. … The entire field returns at 10 a.m. Wednesday for the final six games of qualifying before the field is cut to the top 24 for the first round of match play at 6 p.m. Tickets are $15 per session or $25 for an all-day pass, and can be purchased at the door.