SHAWNEE, Okla. (Jan. 12, 2019) – Trying for their first Go Bowling! PBA Tour titles, Brad Miller and Kyle Sherman rode a 6-0 record in the final Baker format match play round to earn top qualifier honors for Sunday’s FS1 taping of the PBA Mark Roth-Marshall Holman Doubles Championship at the FireLake Bowling Center.

Miller, of Lees Summitt, Mo., and Sherman, of O’Fallon, Mo., who finished with a 9,802 40-game pinfall total (including match play bonus pins) and 9-3 overall record in match play, combined for games of 279, 266, 279 248, 248 and 246 (261 average) to move from fifth heading into the round to the top qualifier spot.

The Baker format requires each player to alternate frames in a game combining for one score.

Miller’s best previous best tour finish was fifth in the 2015 Xtra Frame Iowa Midwest Open and Sherman’s previous best was ninth in the 2017 U.S. Open.

“Our game plan was to stay slow in all parts of the game,” said the 28-year-old Miller. “Our experience throughout the whole tournament was if we got too fast in our approach, or with our ball speed, we would leave a lot 10 pins. So, staying was the key for us.”

Both players star in a popular YouTube channel called Brad & Kyle, with more than 10,000 subscribers, that chronicles their exploits on and off the bowling circuit.

“We’ll have a lot of good content for that now,” Miller said. “We’re both a little bit in dreamland at the moment, so we want to just soak it all in and enjoy the experience of making our first TV show.”

Another feature on the channel is the 24-year-old Sherman’s recovery after hip surgery for a torn labrum in August. The PBA Oklahoma Open and Roth-Holman Doubles Championship are his first tournaments back since then.

Also trying for their first PBA Tour titles will be No. 2 qualifiers Sam Cooley of Australia and Anthony Lavery-Spahr of Pasadena, Texas, and No. 3 qualifiers Canadians Patrick Girard and two-hander Zacharay Wilkins.

Cooley and Lavery-Spahr combined for an 8-4 overall match play record and finished with a 9,724 pinfall. Girard, who also qualified second for Sunday’s live FS1 Oklahoma Open finals, and Wilkins posted a 6-6 record and 9,671 pinfall.

Defending champions four-time PBA Player of the Year Jason Belmonte of Australia and Bill O’Neill of Langhorne, Pa., qualified fourth thanks to a 9-3 overall match play record and finishing with a 9,658 pinfall. Their second match play round was highlighted by a 300-268 win over Cooley and Lavery-Spahr. Belmonte will be trying for his 19th tour win and O’Neill his 11th after winning the season-opening PBA Hall of Fame Classic.

Twelve-time tour winner Sean Rash of Montgomery, Ill. and partner Matt Ogle of Louisville, Ky., making his first tour stepladder final, made a dramatic run in the position round match jumping from eighth to qualify for the fifth and final spot with a 279-245 win over brothers Darren and Michael Tang.

PBA Hall of Famer Norm Duke and 2008-09 PBA Player of the Year Wes Malott found the going tougher in the second match play round dropping from first after the first round to seventh. The 2011 and 2015 Roth-Holman Doubles champions finished with a 6-6 match play record and 9,600 pinfall

The Roth-Holman Doubles Championship taping on Sunday will take place at 1:30 p.m. CT after the live PBA Oklahoma Open Championships telecast on FS1 at 10 a.m. CT. The Doubles Championship will air on FS1 Sunday, Jan. 20 at 1 p.m. ET (noon CT).

PBA MARK ROTH-MARSHALL HOLMAN DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP

FireLake Bowling Center, Shawnee, Okla., Saturday

Fourth Round Standings (after 40 games. Top five advance to Sunday’s Baker format stepladder finals. Includes match play record and total pinfall including bonus pins).

1, Brad Miller, Lees Summit, Mo./Kyle Sherman, O'Fallon, Mo., 9-3, 9,802.
2, Anthony Lavery-Spahr, Pasadena, Texas/Sam Cooley, Australia, 8-4, 9,724.
3, Patrick Girard, Canada/Zacharay Wilkins, Canada, 6-6, 9,671.
4, Bill O'Neill, Langhorne, Pa./Jason Belmonte, Australia, 9-3, 9,658.
5, Matthew Ogle, Louisville, Ky./Sean Rash, Montgomery, Ill., 5-6-1, 9,622.
6, Jesper Svensson, Sweden/Kyle Troup, Taylorsville, N.C., 4-7-1, 9,601, $8,000.
7, Norm Duke, Clermont, Fla./Wes Malott, Pflugerville, Texas, 6-6, 9,600, $7,000.
8, Darren Tang, Las Vegas, Nev./Michael Tang, Johnstown, Ohio, 5-7, 9,546, $6,000.
9, Jakob Butturff, Tempe, Ariz./Michael Haugen Jr., Phoenix, 5-7, 9,491, $5,000.
10, AJ Johnson, Oswego, Ill./Greg Ostrander, Freehold, N.J., 5-7, 9,398, $4,000.
11, Dom Barrett, England/Osku Palermaa, Finland, 4-6-2, 9,388, $3,500.
12, Chris Barnes, Double Oak, Texas/Tommy Jones, Simpsonville, S.C., 4-8, 9,253, $3,000.