February 20, 2024 Nolan Hughes

AJ Johnson summed up the night at David Small’s Championship Lanes in Anderson, Ind.

“Benjy! Bro, what did you eat for lunch?!” Johnson shouted as he walked towards Benjamin Martinez, who nearly broke the PBA Tour six-game scoring record during the second round of qualifying.

Martinez, a 26-year-old Mexican, took over the Just Bare PBA Indiana Classic lead with games of 276, 279, 277, 300, 254 and 246 for a 1,632 six-game set. He came up three pins shy of the record shared by Norm Duke and Dave Wodka.

“It feels great,” Martinez said. “You're throwing great, you're carrying everything, you're getting messengers. It's just one of those days that everything clicks.”

The third-year player needed a 250 in his final game to break the record. Martinez started the game on lanes 39-40 with two splits. He went light and left a 2-4-6-10 on the right lane, then went high and left a 3-10 on the left lane.

Martinez said he knew he needed to make a ball change and move a little left on the left lane. Both adjustments proved to be correct as he struck on his next seven shots. However, Martinez needed the eighth strike; he left a flat-10 pin on his second shot in the 10th to come up short of the record.

“I knew that was close,” Martinez said. “I just had 300. I had 832 the first three (games) and then just kept going. I didn't know the exact numbers, but people were clapping and I knew that I could potentially do it.”

Heading into the second round, Martinez committed to a gameplan of switching to reactive equipment when his look with urethane showed any signs of faltering. Martinez was not as decisive in the first round and shot 188 and 132 in Games 3-4.

The moment arrived in the second frame of Game 3. Martinez, who snuck into the main field after finishing the pre-tournament qualifier with four of five strikes, made the ball change and proceeded to strike on his next 28 consecutive shots.

EJ Tackett, Marshall Kent, Cristian Azcona and Kyle Troup round out the top five.

Martinez, Tackett, Packy Hanrahan, Stu Williams and birthday-boy Mitch Hupé each shot 300 on Tuesday.

After Wednesday’s third round of qualifying, which begins at 10 a.m. ET, the field will be trimmed to the top 32 players.

Peter Fox, averaging 228.33, sits in 32nd place at +340 through 12 games.

All qualifying and match play rounds will be livestreamed on BowlTV.

The Just Bare PBA Indiana Classic finals will be held Saturday, Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m. ET. Tickets are available here.

More information on the Just Bare PBA Indiana Classic is available here.

Round 2 Leaders

  1. Benjy Martinez, 2,965 (+565)
  2. EJ Tackett, 2,937 (+537)
  3. Cristian Azcona, 2,921 (+521)
  4. Marshall Kent, 2,921 (+521)
  5. Kyle Troup, 2,915 (+515)
  6. Tom Hess, 2,880 (+480)
  7. AJ Johnson, 2,872 (+472)
  8. Packy Hanrahan, 2,866 (+466)
  9. Stu Williams, 2,863 (+463)
  10. AJ Chapman, 2,850 (+450)

Full standings are available here.

Just Bare PBA Indiana Classic Schedule

David Small’s Championship Lanes | Anderson, IN

All times Eastern

Wednesday, Feb. 21
10 a.m. — Qualifying Round 3 (six games)
Cut to top 32 players; pins carry over
6 p.m. — Elimination Round 1 (six games)
Cut to top 24 players; pins carry over

Thursday, Feb. 22
10 a.m. — Elimination Round 2 (six games)
Cut to top 12 players; pins carry over
6 p.m. — Elimination Round 3 (six games)
Top five players advance to championship round

Saturday, Feb. 24
7:30 p.m. — Just Bare PBA Indiana Classic finals
Tickets