Bowling right at home on ESPN

[onefrombills]

1/30/2009
PBA.com

The Professional Bowlers @ssociation has found a home on ESPN, and while there are still eight regular Sunday telecasts scheduled for this season, bowling fans will have additional opportunities to catch their favorite players battling it out under the lights this spring, the PBA announced Friday.

The bonus action will begin early with the tape-delayed finals of the Don and Paula Carter Mixed Doubles Championship this Sunday at 2 p.m. Eastern. It is the finale of the seven-event 2008-09 PBA Women's Series, which is sponsored by USBC, and will feature newly-inducted PBA Hall of Famer Norm Duke and Liz Johnson as the top seeds.

Other qualifiers include No. 2 Carolyn Dorin-Ballard and Sean Rash, No. 3 Jen Petrick and Steve Harman, No. 4 Tom Hess and Laura Hardeman and No. 5 Shannon Pluhowsky and Brad Angelo.

Six of the Women's Series competitors will return to ESPN on April 12 from 1-3 p.m. Eastern for the PBA Women's Series Showdown, a special event that will feature the five individual winners from this season's Women's Series (Michelle Feldman, Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, Stefanie Nation, Jodi Woessner and Wendy Macpherson), plus Missy Bellinder, who finished second to Feldman when she won her second title of the year.

The Women's Series Showdown will be conducted at the Kegel Training Center in Lake Wales, Fla., and the format will be announced soon.

And finally, beginning April 22 at 9 p.m. Eastern, Wednesday night will be bowling night on ESPN with a groundbreaking new five-week series presented by the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour and Strike Ten Entertainment.

The world's best bowlers will face off in the first PBA King of the Hill Powered by AMP Energy(r) on April 22, and the series will continue on April 29, May 6, May 13 and May 20.

Also during this five-week timeframe, consumers will be encouraged to visit participating bowling centers to participate in the AMP/Dale Earnhardt Jr. promotion for a chance to win exciting prizes.

"We are thrilled to bring high stakes bowling to a prime time audience," said PBA CEO and Commissioner Fred Schreyer. "Working with ESPN and Strike Ten, plus our great sponsor AMP Energy(r), we will present bowling to fans like they've never seen it before."

The top 10 players in the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Player of the Year points race at the end of this 50th Anniversary season will qualify for the PBA King of the Hill Powered by AMP Energy(r) series, along with one wild card entry. The PBA Player of the Year, likely to be decided at the season-ending Liquidators U.S. Open, which concludes on April 5, will be declared the first "king."

Each one-hour King of the Hill show will feature three players. In the first show, the No. 2 finisher in the Player of the Year race will face the No. 3 finisher in a one-game match, with the winner advancing to bowl against the King (Player of the Year) in a one-game match. That winner will come back as the King on the following week's show.

The players in the PBA King of the Hill Powered by AMP Energy(r) will be battling for a purse of $100,000. The event also will be contested at the Kegel Training Facility in Lake Wales, Florida.

The second show will feature Player of Year points finisher No. 4 vs. No. 5. The third week finds No. 6 against No. 7, No. 8 takes on No. 9 on fourth show and the last week has No. 10 against the wildcard.
The PBA Player of the Year points list can be found on pba.com. Currently, Wes Malott leads the point race, followed by Sunday's H&R Block Tournament of Champions winner Patrick Allen and PBA World Championship winner Norm Duke.