By BILL SNIER
FAIRLAWN — Coming into AMF Riviera Lanes this week, Matt Sanders wasn’t sure what the future would hold.
The Evansville, Ind., left-hander was sitting 44th on the PBA points list, with the top 43 gaining exempt status for the 2025 season.
“Results wise, it hasn’t been good, But physically and mentally, I’ve felt good for the majority of the season,” said Sanders, who was the 2017 PBA rookie of the year and owns one career tour title
“I bowled pretty well in a lot of first rounds of events, but when the re-oil came, I fell off a bit. I had a couple of bad tournaments, but I also had a couple where I’ve been up in the standings and couldn’t hang on.”
But a key six-game block during the third round of PBA Tournament of Champions qualifying Wednesday morning made all the difference. Sanders, who was sitting 41st after two rounds, shot a block-high 1,413 to jump to 19th and make the match-play portion of the tournament.
“After the first two qualifying rounds, it wasn’t looking too good for the tournament. But I hit a very good last block of qualifying,” said Sanders, whose lone tour win came during his rookie season in Memphis, Tenn.
“I had a really good day of bowling (Wednesday). I feel like I still threw it well today so far, but I didn’t get the right reads at the right time. Hopefully, I can win some more matches tonight.”
Sanders, who teamed with Graham Fach, Brett Shepherd and Zach Wilkins to win the MEGA team event in Columbus two years ago, is 13th overall with 7465, 242 pins out of the cut for Sunday’s stepladder finals.
“Obviously, I would like to be higher in points. Hopefully, I can finish this off and be good to go,” Sanders said. “I need a big block with a lot of wins. I have to manage the bad pairs, and I haven’t done a good job of doing that to this point.”
Sanders, the only true lefty in the field (the other two — 19-year-old Eric Jones and Matt Russo are two-handers) — said following Jones in the same area of the center made the lanes easier to read for him. But when he got to the low end of the center, he struggled.
“I don’t know if it’s not seeing what Russo is doing or just this side of the place is tougher for me,” Sanders said. “Obviously, I have to figure it out (tonight).”
He has no idea about the points total he needs to guarantee his tour status.
“I’m good as long as I don’t fall off,” Sanders said. “Just making it this far was huge. Obviously, it was not looking good to get to match play at the start.
“My goal was just to keep grinding, plus my head down and go at it from there. And that doesn’t change (tonight.)”
SIMONSEN GRABS LEAD
Anthony Simonsen, who remained in the top six throughout the tournament, charged into the lead after four games of the second match-play session with a 269-236 win over Kyle Sherman. The 27-year-old two-handed Las Vegas righty has compiled a tourney-best 11-4-1 match-play mark with 7,970 total pinfall, an average of 224.26.
He stands 78 pins ahead of defending PBA Player of the Year EJ Tackett (7,892), with first-round match-play leader Matt Ogle (7,877), qualifying leader Brad Miller (7,786) and Marshall Kent (7,707), qualifying leader after the first two rounds, filling out the top five.
Simonsen turned in the top second-round match-play block of 1,917 to move to the top after starting the day with a 279-208 win over Russo in his opening match Thursday.
“I took advantage of a good pair to start, then I was able to run off some wins, but also bowl some very good games,” Simonsen said. “I looked at the scoring pace and nobody is averaging 230, so that meant if you bowl 230, your chances of winning are pretty high.”
Simonsen averaged 240 during the block, with his low game being 207 in a loss to defending champion Jason Belmonte — his only loss of the shift to go along with a 229 tie with Tom Daugherty.
“I like striking as much as anyone else, but I also like striking when nobody else is striking,” Simonsen said. “After that first block, I had to get out of that mindset that we had all season of trying to bowl 240 or 230 pretty quickly and kind of grind away and work with what the lanes are giving me.”
He knows the lanes will not get easier, so his game plan remains the same.
“Juts try to hunker down and not try not to give any pins away,” Simonsen said. “I just want to be on the show, and it doesn’t matter where. I just have to keep working and have that mindset going in.”
ANOTHER MILLER COMEBACK
After being the qualifying leader, Miller dropped to sixth after the opening match-play session Wednesday. But he finished on a positive note, with a 227-157 win over Daugherty. Then, he shot the second-best morning block Thursday with 1,868, winning his final five matches.
“That was big because last night was not very good. I got kind of lucky as well because I hit some good pairs,” said Miller, who got into the field after two players dropped out opening more spots for those players who didn’t qualify through Monday’s pre-tournament qualifier.
“I lost it a little bit last night, but I was able to get it back with that last game. I came in this morning struggling a little bit and my opponents were bowling pretty well. I was a little lost. But then I got lined up with urethane balls and had a couple of 230s. Then I went to a reactive and it fit perfectly.”
Miller didn’t qualify for the World Series of Bowling after failing to advance out of the event’s PTQ.
“I just had to sit and watch,” Miller said. “But I saw the patterns and the scoring pace. It was not my kind of patterns to succeed on. Yeah, it was going to suck because I was so many points down, but it wasn’t so bad.”
Miller, who stands 80th in the points race, needs at least a top two or three finish to gain tour status for next year.
“I have to keep my mind slow, my body slow and make sure my hands are doing the right thing. When I get out of it a little bit, I have to dial it down and just find it. And I do that by staying calm,” said Miller, who teams with fellow match-play qualifier Kyle Sherman on the popular YouTube show “Brad & Kyle.”
“It’s going to be a little more antsy tonight with a bigger crowd and more attention. I have to try to block all that out and stay in my rhythm. When I do that, good things happen.”
NOTEBOOK: This week’s match play field features 15 right-handers, six two-handed righties and the three lefties. Jones, who made the show during the PBA World Championship last week, is sixth, just four pins behind Kent for the final stepladder spot. Jason Sterner is just 11 pins out. … Although the TOC has no action Friday, a PBA50 Central Region event is being held beginning at 9 a.m. Friday at Rebman Recreation in Lorain. The field includes 63 players for the one-day event. Admission is free. … The PBA Elite League will hold another session at 4 p.m. Saturday, with a $20 admission fee. Pro-Ams are set for 9 and 11 a.m.. Saturday. For information, go to pba.com. … During Thursday’s morning session, players had a 57 percent strike rate, with an average of 216 for the 24-player field.
See complete scores here: