Texas’s Odessa In the second qualifying round of the 2022 PBA50 Odessa Open on Saturday, Walter Ray Williams Jr. moved up from ninth to second. The most successful professional bowler ever recorded a 750 series and a 771 series on Sunday during match play to secure the top seed in the stepladder finals.
But Williams Jr. was utterly perplexed before the championship match at Diamond Lanes.
He observed the left lane had a hang point where he was trying to play, and it was a little tighter, so he assumed he would have to hook the ball during his first practice session on the TV pair. However, he was also not getting the desired outcomes from that strategy. Williams Jr. was even more uneasy after witnessing No. 16 seed Lennie Boresch Jr., who was able to roll and manipulate his wrist to push his way through the rest of the stepladder field.
Boresch Jr. got things going initially with a strike in the left lane. Williams Jr. used the Hammer Black Widow Pink urethane to leave two weak 10-pins in a row before switching to a.
“I thought this is not good at all after I left the 7-10 in the fourth,” Williams Jr. remarked. “I assumed Lennie would do a lot of striking because he was positioned accordingly.”
After throwing at least four strikes on the right lane in each of his previous three matches, Boresch Jr. appeared to have an advantage in this match; but, in the fourth frame, he left a pocket 4–10 for his first open frame.
In the sixth frame, Boresch Jr. scored his second open frame of the title fight with a 7–10 on the feared right lane, while Williams Jr. followed up his opening frame with a double.
Lennie had two really bad breaks that gave me the lead,” Williams Jr. said. “In the ninth frame, I tugged it a little too much and it dead hooked.”
Williams Jr. left the 4-6-7-10 in the ninth also on the right lane. But he was able to throw a double in the 10th frame to earn the hard fought 187-172 victory for his 16th PBA50 Tour title.
“Fortunately, in the 10th frame, I managed to do what I needed,” the USBC and PBA Hall of Famer said. “I was not very comfortable and in fact, I am still not comfortable, and I just won the tournament.”
He admits it was not an “overly impressive match on my part, but I was very fortunate.”
Boresch Jr. had total control of the lanes going into the championship match. Dan Knowlton, the runner-up in this competition last year, led Boresch Jr. by 20 pins after five frames in the opening match. Throughout the final stretch, Boresch outperformed the other player. In the tenth session, he took the field and won 248–238 by doubling.
In the second match, Boresch kept winning over Tom Hess. Hess had three spares and one strike after the first four frames, while Boresch was tied with one strike and three single-pin spares. After that, Boresch struck out eight times in a row to surpass Hess’s score of 182.
Despite both players opened in the first set, Boresch looked superior on the TV pair against Brad Angelo in the third match. Boresch proceeded to triumph 216–165.
Visit PBA50 Odessa Open | PBA to view the complete results.
Final Standings for the 2022 PBA50 Odessa Open:
1. $7,500 for Walter Ray Williams Jr.
2. $4,000 to Lennie Boresch Jr.
Third Party Brad Angelo $2,400
4. Tom Hess $2,000
5. Dan Knowlton $1,700
MATCH ENDINGS
Match 1: Knowlton defeated Boresch Jr. 248–238,
Boresch Jr. defeats Hess 258–182 in match two.
-Match 3: 216-165 for Boresch Jr. vs Angelo
Final: Williams Jr. defeats Boresch Jr. 187–172
