Barnes Shoots 300 To Lead Qualifying At PBA50 Ballard Championship
Jackson, Michigan – Two players with perfect games during qualifying at the 2023 PBA50 Ballard Championship finished first and second after eight games on Sunday.
Chris Barnes has a flair for the dramatic. He rolled a 300 in his last game to pass his roommate, John Janawicz, this week at the kickoff to the inaugural PBA50 World Series of Bowling. Janawicz led A-squad with 1,894.
“I joked to Jon DeLaney on my pair that I had to shoot 300, as low man got the cot,” Barnes said of his mindset heading into the last game.
Barnes admits he watched Janawicz earlier in the day and made note of the transition he and others were going through. He took that information and how his roommate chose to attack the lanes into consideration when it was his turn to go through it.
“I felt the same thing he was feeling, and I started to go that way but remembered what happened when he did,” Barnes said. “I just balled down and copied his lead. Certainly, he gets an assist as he added more pins to my score than I did to his.”
Barnes, who won the last PBA50 tournament at JAX 60 on the same Del Ballard 36-foot oil pattern, added scores of 221, 230, 240, 247, 181, 279 and 203 to go with his 300 for 1,901. He is comfortable inside this center as he has family friends there cheering him on. Plus, he is extra motivated by the format of this first-time event for the senior bowlers.
“This is the biggest prize fund that we bowl for,” he said. “It’s a new challenge tomorrow. Today was a nice start to the overall event, but tomorrow should be higher scoring, so you have to come out firing.”
As for Janawicz, he shot 247, 177, 264, 300, 175, 228, 266 and 237, a 236.75 average. He found the lanes to be tight on the low end when he got started so he used a Storm Pitch Black urethane. Things didn’t quite match up on the next pair, getting into some trouble early, but then he made a bigger move to the left and switched to a Storm Super Nova, which resulted in games of 264 and 300.
After getting lined up in Game 6, he was happy with the way he finished on the Ballard oil pattern. Janawicz remembers watching Ballard ball rep on the PBA Tour back in the day when he was doing the lane maintenance working for Kegel.
“I always tried to pick his brain a lot and I still continue to,” Janawicz said. “Not just one of the great bowlers of all-time but he definitely understands the game, the technical part. One of the most well-rounded people in all of bowling.”
When Janawicz first saw the PBA50 Tour schedule he was excited about the World Series of Bowling.
“I think it is absolutely awesome,” he said. “I was looking forward to it especially when Kegel gave me the green light to bowl more of the tournaments. David Small has done a really nice renovation and this is a fantastic facility to be able to hold the first WSOB for the seniors.”
The top 16 players advance to bracket match play at Noon on Wednesday, featuring best-of-five-game matches in the Round of 16 followed by best-of-three-game matches after that. The final player to advance in the PBA50 Ballard Championship was Tom Hess at 1,723.
The PBA50 WSOB field will now bowl eight games of qualifying in the PBA50 Monacelli Championship starting with B-squad at 9 a.m. ET Monday and A-squad set to begin at 4 p.m. ET.
The PBA50 Petraglia Championship will also include eight games of qualifying starting with A-squad 9 a.m. Tuesday and B-squad at 4 p.m.
Cumulative scores across the Ballard, Monacelli and Petraglia Championships count towards PBA50 World Championship qualifying totals.
You can watch all of the action on BowlTV.
PBA50 Ballard Championship Match Play Advancers
- Chris Barnes,1,901 (+301)
- John Janawicz, 1,894 (+294)
- Dan Knowlton, 1,890 (+290)
- Lennie Boresch Jr., 1,861 (+261)
- Troy Lint, 1,813 (+213)
- Pete Weber, 1,809 (+209)
- Jason Couch, 1,775 (+175)
- Pete McCordic, 1,761 (+161)
- Walter Ray Williams Jr., 1,753 (+153)
- Christopher Viale, 1,753 (+153)
- Brad Angelo, 1,753 (+153)
- Skip Pavone, 1,749 (+149)
- John Gould, 1,742 (+142)
- Paul Fleming, 1,742 (+142)
- Larry Achten Jr., 1,738 (+138)
- Tom Hess, 1,723 (+123)
Full standings - PBA50 Ballard Championship
More information on the PBA50 WSOB is available here.