Tennis legend Billie Jean King’s New York City WTT KingPins will take a five-point lead into the PBA League Don Carter round which will be telecast on ESPN Sunday March 3 at 3 p.m. ET along with the championship match of the Don Carter Classic from Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park, Mich.
Sunday’s telecast will begin with the Clash eliminator round where 11 players will compete in a one-ball, low-man-out competition. Rounds continue until one survivor remains; his team then becomes the No. 4 team in the PBA League stepladder final.
Teams will be represented in the Clash round on a weighted basis, based on their finishing positions in the qualifying round. The Dallas Strikers (the No. 4 qualifier) will have four players in the Clash field followed by L.A. X with three, Pittsburgh Jack Rabbits with two, and Philadelphia Hitmen and Motown Muscle with one each.
The Clash round winner’s team will then bowl the opening Baker team match against comedian Chris Hardwick’s Silver Lake Atom Splitters (Chris Barnes, Dom Barrett, Josh Blanchard, Stuart Williams and Nathan Bohr).
The match one winner advances to meet the KingPins (Pete Weber, Tommy Jones, Scott Norton, Jack Jurek and John Szczerbinski) in the semifinal.
The semifinal winner will challenge the qualifying leader BROOKLYN STyLES (Sean Rash, Ryan Ciminelli, Ryan Shafer, Walter Ray Williams Jr. and Jason Sterner) owned by actor Jesse Williams.
The Don Carter Classic is named after the bowling legend who earned six Player of the Year titles, was voted the greatest bowler of all time in 1970 and was voted the 11th greatest PBA player of all time in 2009.
In third PBA League round, the Motown Muscle (Mike Fagan, Tom Smallwood, Mike Scroggins, Ronnie Russell and Jesse Buss) owned by former Steelers star running back Jerome Bettis, defeated the KingPins in the final match to edge within five points of the KingPins in the overall League point standings.
After three rounds of PBAL competition, the KingPins lead the race to the Elias Cup finals with 32 points, followed by Motown Muscle, 27; BROOKLyN STyLES, 25; Philadelphia Hitmen, 17; Dallas Strikers, 16; Silver Lake Atom Splitters, 13; L.A. X, 11 and the Pittsburgh Jack Rabbits, 4.
The fifth and final PBA League qualifying round will air on ESPN on March 24. The top four teams will advance to the Elias Cup finals (named in honor of PBA founder Eddie Elias) which will be contested at Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis on March 31 and telecast on Sunday, April 7 at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Concluding Sunday’s telecast will be the Don Carter Classic championship match between top qualifier and seven-time Tour titlist Wes Malott of Pflugerville, Texas, vs. Jason Sterner of McDonough, Ga. Sterner, who made his television debut during the GEICO PBA World Series of Bowling in November (where he finished fourth in the Bowlers Journal Scorpion Championship), is looking for his first Tour title.
Three easy steps to enhance your PBA telecast experience:
1) Tune into pba.com’s Xtra Frame for a free pre-game preview of the Don Carter Classic and Don Carter PBA League round.
2) Watch the Don Carter Classic finals and PBA League round on ESPN Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.
3) Tune into the post-event show at Sunday 5 p.m. ET. Xtra Frame’s post-tournament show interviews the winning player and provides in-depth ball rep analysis of the winner’s equipment selection and ball preparation.
Bowling fans can get additional Tour coverage on pba.com and provide their feedback on PBA Tour telecasts through PBA’s social networking platforms on Facebook and Twitter