April 11, 2025 Nolan Hughes

Nine players remain in title competition for the PBA Players Championship, the fourth major of the 2025 season, at David Small's JAX 60 in Jackson, Mich.

Twenty-year-old Ethan Fiore earned the top seed for the two-part stepladder finals, averaging nearly 227 for the event’s 48 games of qualifying and round-robin match play.

Ryan Barnes, Alec Keplinger and Tim Foy Jr. secured berths in Sunday’s championship round as the second through fourth qualifiers.

All four finalists seek to win their first career PBA Tour title. They will be joined by the advancing player from Saturday’s preliminary stepladder, which includes three past champions of this event.

Jason Belmonte, who owns the most PBA Players Championship titles with three, will be the fifth overall seed and the top seed in Saturday’s preliminary stepladder. He will face the winner of Jason Sterner, Anthony Simonsen, Nick Pate and Kevin McCune.

All qualifying rounds and match play rounds through Friday were livestreamed on BowlTV.

The two-part championship round includes the prelims Saturday at 7 p.m. Eastern time on FS1 and the finals Sunday at noon ET on FOX.

Fiore, a Tampa native, sits one game away from winning his first career PBA Tour title. 

“This feels unreal,” Fiore said. “It felt the same way as when I bowled the PBA Mike Aulby Nevada Classic and I made the finals. I'm not going to be able to absorb what just happened until it's over.”

“I’m going to do the same thing because it went pretty well for me the last time,” Fiore said of his previous finals appearance, when he lost in a seven-frame roll-off to EJ Tackett.

Fiore ended each of six eight-game rounds of the event in no lower than second place. Keplinger seized the lead to close the first round of match play, but Fiore retook the lead with final games of 265, 276, 209 and 279.

“I got lost this morning when I put more focus on ball reaction,” Fiore said. “Tonight, we were all focused on fundamentals and throwing better shots more often. Execution was top tier tonight and I came out with more score.”

As the No. 2 seed, Ryan Barnes will make his second consecutive championship round appearance in the PBA Players Championship. He finished third in Wichita, Kan. last year as an amateur.

Barnes said he struggled on the fresh 37-foot Don Carter oil pattern all week, but he said he drilled a ball to allow him to stay farther right for longer in match play. He averaged more than 243 in Games 2-8 of each match play round, including just one game below 223.

“I stayed in this zone where there wasn't a lot of traffic,” Barnes said. “I thought I was going to have to chase the left like every other block. I got to just go repeat (shots) for a while, and I was repeating pretty good.

This marks Barnes’ third finals appearance of the season. He lost his first match in each previous appearance, shooting games of 141 and 133, but said he doesn’t plan to make significant changes to his preparation.

“The process is the process,” Barnes said. “Honestly, I haven't really thrown it that bad on TV. I know I've scored really bad, but I just have to match up to the lanes better. We're going to try and find a good gameplan in practice and see if we can't do something good.”

Keplinger, who earned the No. 3 seed, hails from Coldwater, Mich., which is about a 40-minute drive from Jackson. Two of his three career championship round appearances have come in his home state, including last season’s PBA Cheetah Championship in Allen Park.

“To have people here and do this in front of them, proud is about the only way to describe this feeling,” Keplinger said. “I’m on cloud nine. It’s amazing coming back to Michigan and bowling well.”

Barnes and Keplinger were teammates at Wichita State University from 2020-2023. They won the 2021 and 2023 Intercollegiate Team Championships and finished runners-up in 2022. (Barnes was on the developmental team in 2021.)

Another former teammate, TJ Rock, finished in 14th place.

Tim Foy Jr. will make his sixth championship round appearance of the season and second in a major championship. Before this season, Foy had made the finals just once in his career.

“This makes me feel like making the World Championship show wasn’t a fluke, so that’s cool,” Foy said. “I’ve got a decent amount of TV experience this year. I just need to try to put it all together to finally hold a trophy at the end of the day.”

Foy lost in the semifinal match of the PBA World Championship to EJ Tackett, who threw a match-winning Brooklyn strike in the 10th frame. Still searching for his first career title, Foy said he doesn’t feel pressure to win.

“It’s more about the drive: I’m ready to win,” Foy said. “I feel like I’ve learned enough on TV and I’ve been bowling well on TV. I bowled well against EJ (Tackett) and the unfortunate break happened. It’s easy to put your head down and dwell on things, but if I keep putting myself in position to win, eventually it’s going to happen.”

Jason Belmonte will look to extend his record with a fourth career PBA Players Championship victory, previously winning in 2011-12, 2017 and 2022.

Jason Sterner, propelled by a 300 in Game 5 of Friday’s second round of match play, secured the sixth overall seed and second seed in the preliminary round.

Anthony Simonsen, who defeated Belmonte in the 2019 championship match of this event, will be the seventh overall seed and third seed in the preliminary round.

Nick Pate, who rose from 11th to eighth during the position round, will face the 2023 PBA Players Championship winner Kevin McCune in the opening match on Saturday.

Boog Krol finished seven pins behind McCune. Krol could have struck in the 10th frame of the position round to usurp McCune.

Chris Via, Arturo Quintero, Andrew Anderson, TJ Rock, Stu Williams and Patrick Dombrowski round out the match play finishers.

Match Play Standings | 48 Games
  1. Ethan Fiore, 11,225 (+1,625)
  2. Ryan Barnes, 11,109 (+1,509)
  3. Alec Keplinger, 11,052 (+1,452)
  4. Tim Foy Jr., 10,943 (+1,343)
  5. Jason Belmonte, 10,848 (+1,248)
  6. Jason Sterner, 10,821 (+1,221)
  7. Anthony Simonsen, 10,801 (+1,201)
  8. Nick Pate, 10,718 (+1,118)
  9. Kevin McCune, 10,684 (+1,084)
  10. Boog Krol, 10,677 (+1,077)
  11. Chris Via, 10,622 (+1,022)
  12. Arturo Quintero, 10,618 (+1,018)
  13. Andrew Anderson, 10,578 (+978)
  14. TJ Rock, 10,567 (+967)
  15. Stu Williams, 10,538 (+938)
  16. Patrick Dombrowski, 10,508 (+908)
Tournament Schedule

David Small's JAX 60 | Jackson, Mich.

All times Eastern/local

Friday, April 11 | BowlTV
11 a.m. — Match Play Round 1 (eight games)
6 p.m. — Match Play Round 2 (eight games)

5th-9th qualifiers players advance to prelims; 1st-4th qualifiers advance to finals

Saturday, April 12 | FS1
7 p.m. — Prelims (stepladder finals)
Winner advances to finals

Sunday, April 13 | FOX
12 p.m. — Finals (stepladder finals)

More information on the PBA Players Championship is available here.