Monacelli Wins PBA50 National Championship to Benefit Riley Hospital for Children

9/6/2016

ELKHART, Ind. - Professional Bowlers Association Hall of Famer Amleto Monacelli concluded the 2016 PBA50 Tour season by winning the PBA50 National Championship to Benefit Riley Hospital for Children for his fourth PBA50 major title on the tour for players
50 years and older.

The Venezuelan defeated two-time PBA Tour and one-time PBA50 Tour titlist Sam Maccarone of Blackwood, N.J., 224-212, in the title match at Signature Lanes to also win his second title of the season and the seventh of his career.
As the No. 3 qualifier for the stepladder finals, the 54-year-old Monacelli had to win two come-from-behind matches to get to the title match.

In the second match, he left splits in the first two frames that he failed to convert before roaring back with six consecutive strikes to beat fellow hall of famer Parker Bohn III of Jackson, N.J., 235-233.
In the semifinal match against two-time PBA50 Player of the Year Ron Mohr of Las Vegas, Monacelli was down by 30 pins in the fourth frame before stringing seven strikes together to win the match 256-244 to advance to the title match against Maccarone.

" I hope I can perform mentally and physically the way I did the last two days in every tournament I bowl," said Monacelli, who is also a 20-time PBA Tour winner. "Those two matches were the best example of how I was able to stay calm and focus after making mistakes. "It would have been easy for me to lose my composure and let that get the best of me," he continued. "I wasn't thinking, oh, I'm going to lose the match. I was thinking about what I needed to do to throw a better shot. It helped that in both cases it was early in the match because that gave me time to make the corrections."

Monacelli's other PBA50 major titles were the USBC Senior Masters in 2015 and back- to-back PBA Senior U.S. Open titles in 2012 and 2013.
In winning his second title of the season, Monacelli became only the second player to win multiple titles this season. PBA Hall of Famer Pete Weber, who won a record six PBA50
Tour titles, was the other.

"I'm just trying to concentrate on learning as I go and don't over analyze," said Monacelli, who won the PBA50 Fountain Valley Open in June. "The way my game is now it takes me back to my best years on the tour in the '90s. I just need to do my thing."

In the opening stepladder match Bohn, a three-time PBA50 Tour winner, beat Hall of Famer Brian Voss of Centennial, Colo., who was trying for his second win of the season,
216-180.

Article was posted with permission from Stars & Strikes, America's Bowling Newsmagazine. www.starsandstrikesbowling.com