AURORA, Ill. (July 2, 2018) – Entering the stepladder finals as the top qualifier, 25-year-old EJ Tackett of Huntington, Ind., beat a struggling Bill O’Neill of Langhorne, Pa., Monday to win the PBA Xtra Frame Parkside Lanes Open for his 10th Go Bowling! PBA Tour title.

Tackett beat O’Neill, who was also trying for his 10th win, 210-171, in the title match to also record his first win of the season.

“To make it to double digits is one of those milestones you always hope to accomplish.” Tackett said of the 10-win milestone. “It’s like winning your second title because it’s another validation in your career that you can compete against the best in the world.

“There’s no such thing as an easy win but this tournament felt easier than most for some reason,” the 2016 PBA Player of the Year added.

In the title match, O’Neill ran into problems early when he left the 2-10 and 2-7-10 splits back-to-back in the third and fourth frames and was not able to convert the splits.

Tackett, using a urethane ball on the PBA Chameleon 39-foot lane condition, which he chose for the title match, was able to hit the pocket consistently and never threw anything less than a nine-count until the 10th frame when the match had already been decided.

In each stepladder match the higher qualifier was able to select the lane condition for the match.

“Bowling on the Chameleon condition was the easiest for me to break down with a urethane ball,” Tackett said. “I just felt that I could avoid bowling 180 and it was my best chance to keep the ball in play. If I could bowl over 200 I felt my chances of winning the match were pretty good. I did exactly what I wanted to do.

In the opening stepladder match, six-time Tour winner Dom Barrett of England defeated four-time titlist Marshall Kent of Yakima Wash., 235-226, to advance to the second match against O’Neill who qualified third for the finals.

O’Neill went on to beat Barrett, 245-216, in the second match and then No. 2 qualifier two-hander Chris Via of Springfield, Ohio, 209-198, in the semifinal to advance to the title match.

Intended to put added emphasis on performing well every game, the unique qualifying portion of the tournament awarded bonus pins to players for each game depending on how they finished against their competitors on each pair of lanes. As an example, with four players on a pair of lanes, the top scorer would earn 30 bonus pins, the second high scorer 20 pins and third 10 pins with the lowest scoring player receiving no bonus.

The tournament was also conducted on three different PBA lane conditions with the first round conducted on the Chameleon followed by the second round on the 39-foot Don Carter and the third round conducted on the 39-foot Bear condition.

All PBA Xtra Frame events for the rest of the season will be covered live, from first ball to last, by PBA’s new live streaming partner, FloBowling. Subscriptions are available at FloBowling.com (existing Xtra Frame subscribers can transition their current subscriptions by visitinghttps://www.flobowling.com/claim-account).

The next event on the PBA Xtra Frame on FloBowling.com and Go Bowling! PBA Tour schedule for 2018 is the PBA/PWBA Storm Striking for Breast Cancer Mixed Doubles Tournament that will take place with a sold-out field of 160 teams July 26-29 at Copperfield Bowl in Houston, Texas. Jason Sterner of Rockledge, Fla., and Birgit Poppler of Germany are defending champions.

PBA XTRA FRAME PARKSIDE LANES OPEN

(A 2018 Go Bowling! PBA Tour event)

Parkside Lanes, Aurora, Ill., Monday

 

Final Standings:

1, EJ Tackett, Huntington, Ind., $10,000.

2, Bill O’Neill, Langhorne, Pa., $6,300.

3, Chris Via, Springfield, Ohio, $4,000.

4, Dom Barrett, England, $3,000.

5, Marshall Kent, Yakima, Wash., $2,000.

 

Stepladder Results:

Match one – Barrett def. Kent, 235-226.

Match two – O’Neill def. Barrett, 245-216.

Semifinal – O’Neill def. Via, 209-198.

Championship – Tackett def. O’Neill, 210-171.