PBA Scorpion Championships Lead by Collegian Marshall Kent

Two-time Collegiate Bowler of the Year Marshall Kent of Yakima, WA, the only amateur in the field, won the top berth for the stepladder finals of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA)’s Scorpion Championship Tuesday at South Point Bowling Center.

 

Kent, a student at Robert Morris University-Illinois  in Chicago, averaged 227.79 for 14 games on the Scorpion lane condition, finishing with a 3,189 pinfall total to claim the top rung in the stepladder finals by 12 pins over 2012 PBA World Champion Tom Smallwood of Saginaw, MI. Josh Blanchard of Gilbert, AZ, qualified third with a 3,162 total and Tommy Jones of Simpsonville, SC, earned the fourth spot in the finals with 3,146 pins, 23 ahead of three-time PBA50 Player of the Year Tom Baker of King, NC.

 

Blanchard and Jones, bowling on the same pair of lanes, rolled matching 269 final games to earn their shots at the title. The Scorpion Championship finals will take place on Saturday, Nov. 2, at 7 p.m. ESPN will air the finals on Sunday, Dec. 22, at 1 p.m. ET. The Scorpion Championship was the fourth of five PBA Tour events that compose the PBA World Series of Bowling.

 

Kent, who finished fourth in Bowling’s U.S. Open in July, was invited to bowl in the World Series on a PBA Commissioner’s Exemption because he is still in college.

 

Earlier Tuesday, England’s Dom Barrett led the field of 24 players who advanced to the PBA World Championship round-robin match play finals Wednesday and Thursday based upon combined 28-game qualifying pinfall totals from the Cheetah, Viper, Chameleon and Scorpion rounds. Barrett averaged 237.67 in compiling a 6,655 pinfall total for 28 games, topping Wes Malott of Pflugerville, Texas, by 209 pins. Maldonado qualified third with 6,405 pins.

 

The match play rounds of the PBA World Championship Wednesday and Thursday will be covered live on PBA’s Xtra Frame online bowling channel, and via “live scoring” on pba.com. For daily, monthly or yearly subscriptions to Xtra Frame, click on the Xtra Frame link on the pba.com home page.

 

PBA  SCORPION CHAMPIONSHIP

South Point Bowling Center, Las Vegas, Tuesday

 

SEMIFINAL ROUND STANDINGS (after 14 games; top 4 advance to ESPN stepladder finals at 7 p.m. PT on Saturday, Nov. 2)

1, Marshall Kent, Yakima, Wash., 3,189.
2, Tom Smallwood, Saginaw, Mich., 3,176.
3, Josh Blanchard, Gilbert, Ariz., 3,162.
4, Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 3,146.
5, Tom Baker, King, N.C., 3,123, $4,000.
6 (tie), D.J. Archer, Friendswood, Texas, and Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla., 3,113, $3,250.
8, Keith Laing, Culver City, Calif., 3,111, $2,500.
9, Shawn Maldonado, Houston, 3,103, $2,200.
10, Martin Larsen, Sweden, 3,094, $2,000.
11, Patrick Allen, Wesley Chapel, Fla., 3,093, $1,800.
12, Dom Barrett, England, 3,089, $1,800.
13, Nathan Bohr, Wichita, Kan., 3,084, $1,650.
14, Ryan Shafer, Horseheads, N.Y., 3,079, $1,600.
15, Chris Warren, Grants Pass, Ore., 3,047, $1,550.
16, Lee Vanderhoef, Greenville, S.C., 3,042, $1,500.
17, Dick Allen, Columbia, S.C., 3,024, $1,450.
18, Mika Koivuniemi, Hartland, Mich., 3,019, $1,400.
19, Brian Kretzer, Dayton, Ohio, 2,994, $1,350.
20, Tom Daugherty, Wesley Chapel, Fla., 2,991, $1,300.
21, Joonas Jehkinen, Finland, 2,964, $1,275.
22, Brad Miller, St. Charles, Mo., 2,948, $1,250.
23, Danny Wiseman, Baltimore, 2,915, $1,225.
24, Dan MacLelland, Canada, 2,913, $1,200.

 

300 Games: Dom Barrett, PJ Haggerty.