By JILL WINTERS
PBA Communications
JACKSON, Mich. – Qualifying at the 2025 PBA50 Petraglia Championship on Monday provided a needed confidence boost for Liz Johnson.
The newly minted Professional Women’s Bowling Association Hall of Famer is the tournament leader.
“For my confidence, having a block like today really helped me. Hopefully it gave me a little boost as far as the World Championship standings go,” she said. “It helped all around.”
She relied on just one ball to record games of 217, 236, 215, 215, 254, 184, 299 and 237 to get to +257.
“I told myself to keep making good shots and hopefully the lane will come to me. I grinded out the first five games, stayed with it and kept consistent,” she said. “I was so proud of the 299 game. Up until that game, my high was 254, which I had two games prior. I was really happy to be able to do that.”
This is Johnson’s first appearance in the PBA50 World Series of Bowling. She admits her 87th place finish in the Ballard Championship felt like the longest eight-game block ever for her.
Her mindset was to keep improving from there, which led to a 49th place finish at the Monacelli Championship, and now leading the 46-foot Petraglia oil pattern.
“In the past, I have had a little more success on the longer patterns. Maybe because it gives me a little bit more hold and I used that to my advantage,” Johnson said. “I was very consistent in how I threw the ball and the moves I had to make. I kept it in a little tunnel, and I played a little farther inside then what the other patterns played.”
Behind Johnson by just two pins is Brad Angelo at +255. Bo Goergen is third at +251 followed by Randy Weiss at +250 and fifth is Clint Dacy at +245.
The final player to make the cut was Jeffrey Ripic at +185. He will face No. 1 seed Liz Johnson. If Johnson wins the match, she is guaranteed to make her second career PBA50 stepladder finals appearance.
Also making the cut for the first time at this World Series was Akron’s Don Hogue, who sits 12th with +194. He will face Dacy in his opening match.
The top 16 players now advance to bracket match play best-of-five matches in the Round of 16 scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Tuesday then the Round of 8 will start at 2 p.m. The four undefeated winners and the highest seeded losing bowler in the Round of 8 will be in the stepladder finals set to begin at 6 p.m.
“From qualifying to match play, no matter the format, you have to expect the unexpected. I have to be on my toes as far as making moves,” Johnson said. “I have to make sure I am quicker at making decisions. Hopefully I can throw the ball tomorrow like I did today.”
Qualifying pins from the Ballard, Monacelli, Petraglia and Holman Championships carry over to determine the top 18 bowlers who will compete in the PBA50 World Championship match play, scheduled to begin on Friday.
The top five are John Janawicz, Mark Clark, Brian LeClair, Tom Daugherty and Chris Barnes.
There are three PBA50 titles still available in the WSOB III. Live coverage continues throughout the week onBowlTV.
See complete results here:
https://www.leaguepals.com/league-info?id=686e9237e7b863455ca3827f