NOLAN HUGHES
Four two-handed lefties and Jason Belmonte advance to championship round of PBA Scorpion Championship
The stepladder finals for the PBA Scorpion Championship at PBA World Series of Bowling XV features perhaps the first all-two-handed, five-player championship round in PBA history.
Matt Russo earned the top seed for next Tuesday’s championship round, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern on FS1, followed by Packy Hanrahan, Keven Williams, Jason Belmonte and Jesper Svensson.
The top 16 players after 15 games of qualifying on Wednesday and Thursday on the 42-foot Scorpion pattern advanced to match play on Thursday night at Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park, Mich.
The four players who won their Round of 16 and Round of 8 matches — Russo, Hanrahan, Williams and Belmonte — advanced to the stepladder finals and were seeded by their qualifying position. The fifth seed was awarded to Svensson, the highest qualifier who lost in the Round of 8.https://www.instagram.com/p/C5pQcszsEGv/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=14&wp=810&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pba.com&rp=%2F2024%2Fapril%2Fmatt-russo-headlines-all-two-handed-pba-scorpion-championship-finals#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A2732.199999988079%2C%22ls%22%3A2462%2C%22le%22%3A2533.5%7D
Russo usurped Svensson for the top qualifying position in the final frame of Game 15. Russo shot 279 in his last game, surpassing Svensson (who shot 255) by four pins for the top seed heading into match play.
That meant that Russo’s Round of 16 victory over Jakob Butturff secured himself a berth in the finals, either as the No. 1 or No. 5 seed. Russo faced and defeated EJ Tackett, 3-1, in the Round of 8.
“I drew the hottest player probably on tour, reigning Player of the Year and gave him everything that I had,” Russo said. “Once I was up early, I thought I had good momentum. And then I got up 2-0, and I thought Oh, this is really happening. I’m going to get the No. 1 seed. We went back and forth. I averaged 249 at him and it came down to the last couple of frames so it was really satisfying.”
Russo led the opening round of the PBA Cheetah Championship, but ultimately missed the cut to match play by three pins.
“I was definitely disappointed. I felt like I had so much good come out of Cheetah. But I think it just made me more hungry because this feels like this is my week,” said Russo, who currently sits third in PBA World Championship standings behind Justin Knowles and Svensson.https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5pNaSxOMwq/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=14&wp=810&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pba.com&rp=%2F2024%2Fapril%2Fmatt-russo-headlines-all-two-handed-pba-scorpion-championship-finals#%7B%22ci%22%3A1%2C%22os%22%3A2735.5%2C%22ls%22%3A2462%2C%22le%22%3A2533.5%7D
After qualifying in fourth, Hanrahan defeated Kyle Troup and Chris Via to make the finals as the No. 2 seed. Hanrahan fell behind 0-1 against Troup before winning the next three games, then overcame an 1-2 deficit against Via.
Midway through Game 3 against Via, Hanrahan made the switch from urethane to reactive equipment. The two-handed lefty won the next two games 249-179 and 245-177.
“I thought Chris had good ball motion and I left a 7-9 on a good shot, so I should probably change,” Hanrahan said of the ball change. “I’ve been throwing it and fill shots pretty much every game because I knew it might come to the fact where I need that. If it does come to where I need to do that, at least I’ll know where to throw it.”
Hanrahan, who led the first two rounds of PBA Scorpion Championship qualifying, said on Wednesday that the PBA Elite League and Chris Barnes’ mentorship has elevated his confidence this season.
“I like to view everything as practice,” Hanrahan said. “In my mind, I get to go and practice being in pressure situations on the PBA Elite League TV shows. The league is awesome. I want to win the league more than anything, but during the regular season, it’s practice. That’s when you get to throw that shot for the cheese and count it as [practice.]”
Hanrahan’s co-host on the PBA pre-game show, Williams, earned the No. 3 seed. Williams overcame an 0-2 deficit to defeat Graham Fach in the Round of 16, then took down Svensson, 3-1.
While Williams said this has been a tough season, as he sits 45th in points through the Masters, he stays prepared to take advantage of any opportunity.
“You never know when it’s going to be your week, so you’ve got to always stay mentally ready and prepared,” Williams said. “At any time it can click and you can make a telecast and you can’t miss those opportunities. As easy as it is to get sad and down, you’ve got to stay in it because here we are. I bowled well, took advantage of matching up and seeing the lanes and now we’re going to bowl for a title.”
Belmonte, who earned the No. 4 seed by defeating two southpaws in Michael Martell and Justin Knowles, said this championship round will be a unique experience for him.
“I think this is the first time in my career that I’ve gone through a bracket only seeing lefties and then made it to television, only to see another wall of lefties in front of me,” Belmonte said. “I typically like to bowl right-handers because I like the ability to use my bowling balls to inflict transition. (When you are the only right-hander), your strategies are a little different because now you don’t want to get too far left and create early hook for yourself and you don’t want to get too far behind in the match trying to create something on the pair. Ultimately though, no matter how you set any line up for yourself or against someone else, you’ve got to throw the ball where you’re aiming at. In these matches, I don’t think that was one shot in the six games that I bowled that wasn’t really close to where I was looking.
Since the three-week break before the USBC Masters, Belmonte has finished third in the Masters, earned the No. 2 seed in the Roth/Holman PBA Doubles Championship with Bill O’Neill and finished top 16 in the PBA Cheetah Championship. In addition to recharging by seeing family and friends back home, Belmonte has tapped into a not-so-new source of motivation.
“There’s always motivation inside, but even more so when you start to hear and see things like It’s over. Time to stay home,” Belmonte said. “Of course the boys (on tour) joke about it, but there’s always a little truth in jest. Today’s session was a bit of a reminder to all those that I’ll call it quits when I’m ready.”
Though Svensson couldn’t have been happy about losing the top seed by four pins in the final game of qualifying, his excellence in the 15 games paid dividends tonight. After defeating Ryan Ciminelli in the Round of 16, Svensson earned the wild-card berth as the highest qualifier among players defeated in the Round of 8.
Svensson bounced back from what could have been a demoralizing loss to Marshall Kent in PBA Cheetah Championship Round of 16, where Svensson shot 818 the first three games but ultimately lost the match in five games.
“I feel like it’s definitely the big picture, the World Championship is the big goal for the week,” Svensson said. “That was a tough loss against Marshall. But it’s bowing and it happens. (Kent) bowled great. I bowled good, too. That one stung a little bit, but I woke up this morning and was back on it and it ended up being a pretty good day.”
Svensson and Troup made the Roth/Holman PBA Doubles Championship show, but this marks Svensson’s first singles show of the season and first top-five finish in the U.S. since last season’s PBA Scorpion Championship.
“It’s been a while and obviously that’s tough,” Svensson said. “You want to make every show but that hasn’t really been great. I work hard to stay sharp throughout the year to take the opportunity when given. So far so good, but there’s still a long way to go. Maybe if I can get through Belmonte, at least I will have a game on the pair, so hopefully that can give me a little bit of an advantage. I’m just looking forward to being back on TV and giving it a shot against Belmo.”
The PBA Scorpion Championship finals will air Tuesday, April 16 at 7 p.m. ET on FS1.
Qualifying for the PBA Shark Championship begins at 11 a.m. ET Friday. Additional qualifying rounds take place at 6 p.m. ET Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday before the cut to match play.
The full PBA WSOB XV schedule is available below.
Scorpion Championship Match Play Results
Round of 16
No. 1 Matt Russo def. No. 16 Jakob Butturff, 3-0
No. 9 EJ Tackett def. No. 8 Deo Benard, 3-1
No. 2 Jesper Svensson def. No. 15 Ryan Ciminelli, 3-2
No. 7 Keven Williams def. No. 10 Graham Fach, 3-2
No. 3 Justin Knowles def. No. 14 James Blomgren, 3-2
No. 11 Jason Belmonte def. No. 6 Michael Martell, 3-0
No. 4 Packy Hanrahan def. No. 13 Kyle Troup, 3-1
No. 12 Chris Via def. No. 5 Ethan Fiore, 3-1
Round of 8
No. 1 Matt Russo def. No. 9 EJ Tackett, 3-1
No. 4 Packy Hanrahan def. No. 12 Chris Via, 3-2
No. 7 Keven Williams def. No. 2 Jesper Svensson, 3-1
No. 11 Jason Belmonte def. No. 3 Justin Knowles, 3-0