PBA Missouri Classic Stepladder Set

S. Samek

Let’s take a look at the action from the final two elimination rounds to see who will be competing in Sunday’s stepladder finals.

Bill O’Neill continued to lead the field with a 230 average to after 30 games. He held off a challenge from Matt Russo, who finished the round 25 pins behind. AJ Johnson, Kim Bolleby and Jakob Butturff rounded out the top five.

Cristian Azcona just made the 12th place cut by the slimmest of margins one pin. Azcona threw a 191 last game, while Shawn Maldonado shot a 247, during the last game of the block, however Azcona totaled 6650 pins to Maldonado’s 6649 to earn the last spot in the final elimination round. Though Maldonado did have a 300 game earlier in the tournament as well.

During the final elimination round O’Neill fired three games over 250 with a high game of 269 to secure his number one seed in the stepladder. O’Neill will just have to win one match to win his second tournament of 2024.

EJ Tackett climbed from eighth place to second place during the final elimination round, which saw him fire 278 and 269 in back to back games.

Russo dropped into third place, yet still earned a spot in the stepladder. Johson survived throwing a 155 game in the last one of the round, but still ended the round with a comfortable 54 pin lead over the fifth-place finisher.

The fifth-place finisher was Anthony Simonsen, who fired a 248 and 277 in the final two games to make his way to the stepladder. Butturff finished in sixth 13 pins behind Simonsen. Bolleby ended up finishing in eighth place, while Azcona improved one spot in the standing finishing 11th.

The stepladder finals is Sunday at 12 PM// 1 PM EST. Who will take home the title?