WINTER PARK, Fla. - Kerry Smith of Lititz, Pennsylvania, was the top seed after 16 games of match play at the 2023 Professional Women’s Bowling Association Regional Showdown and won the title match Saturday in dramatic fashion to claim the $4,000 top prize. The victory also includes Smith now having her PWBA National Tour entry fees covered for the 2024 season.
The finals came down to the final frame live on BowlTV.com from Aloma Bowl, with Smith capturing the win over Gazmine Mason of Cranston, Rhode Island, 203-181.
Smith’s journey to the victory Saturday started back in July after she won the PWBA Greater Pittsburgh Regional to earn an automatic spot in round-robin match play at the Regional Showdown.
Smith was able to take the lead after the second round of match play Saturday, going 7-1 during the day to finish with a 3,727 total, and she locked up the top seed against Mason in the position round, who earned the No. 2 seed in the stepladder finals with 3,696. Joining Smith and Mason in the stepladder were No. 3 Andrea Behr of Kettering, Ohio (3,691), and No. 4 Ashly Galante of Palm Harbor, Florida (3,552).
Behr jumped up into the cut after a 300 in Game 15 of match play, while Galante jumped up from sixth to fourth after winning her position-round game.
Behr and Galante faced off in the first stepladder match, and neither bowler could pull away at any point. Behr applied pressure on Galante in the 10th frame by striking out, forcing Galante to strike on her first shot for the chance to advance. Galante struck out to win the match, 229-214, to advance to the semifinals against Mason. Behr collected $1,750 for her fourth-place finish.
The semifinals would be even closer than the first match, as Galante couldn’t get the pins to fall her way and Mason was unable to capitalize on the opportunity. Mason was the first up in the final frame, and she struck on all three shots to end her game at 204. Galante needed to fill 20 pins in her 10th frame to have a shot at advancing to the final match against Smith.
Galante would go nine, spare, nine for the match to end at a 204 tie, forcing bonus bowling in the form of a one-ball roll-off. Mason went first and struck, while Galante left a 4-6-7 split to end the match. Galante would earn $2,250 for third place.
The final match was a rematch of the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds from the position round, which Smith won, 187-180, and it resulted in yet another close match.
Smith would start the game with three straight strikes before disaster struck as her ball went into the gutter to start the fourth frame, resulting in an open.
“I used to walk to the right, and I’ve worked on fixing it for a few years, but every once in a while, it still creeps up. On that shot, it was either throw it into the gutter or take out my ankle,” said Smith.
That would do nothing to deter her, however, as she came back the next frame with a strike, and she credits having a specific mindset in the finals.
“For me, it was one shot, one frame and one game at a time,” Smith said. “I want to throw the best shot possible and if I leave something, I run down whatever is still standing.”
Mason kept her game clean until a 2-10 split in her sixth frame opened up the door for Smith to potentially start pulling away, but she left her own split in the seventh frame with a 7-10. The game was tied at 125 through seven frames, and it still was tied up after both competitors struck in the eighth and ninth frames.
Smith bowled her final frame first, delivering a crossover strike, eight count (3-6) and spare to end with a 203, leaving Mason the opportunity to win the match and title with a strike, nine count and spare.
Mason threw her first ball just a little too far right and left another 2-10 split, ending at 181 and in second place for the second straight edition of the Regional Showdown. She was the runner-up in 2019 to Julia Bond.
With the win, Smith has now collected her third PWBA Regional title, to go along with having her entry fees paid in the upcoming 2024 PWBA National Tour season.
She accomplished a few things for the first time during the 2023 season, like making her first national tour show at the PWBA Waterloo Open in August (finishing in fifth), and she would tell her younger self just one thing if she could as she became a better bowler throughout the years, “You did it.”
The PWBA Regional Showdown was the final event of the 2023 PWBA Regional Tour season, where nine champions were crowned throughout the year leading up to this week’s excitement at Aloma Bowl.
Eight of those champions accepted an automatic spot into match play, with an additional eight spots available through qualifying for 68 competitors. After the top eight were determined through an eight-game qualifying block, all 16 players moved onto match play and bowled 16 round-robin games over Friday and Saturday.
The top four after match play, based on total pinfall and 30 bonus pins for each victory, moved on to the stepladder finals. The entire tournament was streamed live on BowlTV.
To learn more about the PWBA Tour, visit PWBA.com.
