Reigning Players’ Championship winner, 20-year-old Ethan Fiore, won Sunday’s 5th Annual Kremer Roofing Classic PBA tournament at Community Lanes, in Minster. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Call it a tough day of bowling, but with thrills and highlights. In the end, 20-year-old Ethan Fiore, from Tampa, turned back the field to capture the 5th Annual PBA Kremer Roofing Classic in Minster.
Minster, OH – Name the game – any game – and sooner or later someone will tell you, “The game giveth, and the game taketh away.”
That perfectly described the title chase for the 5th annual PBA Kremer Roofing Classic on Sunday as Community Lanes gave in for a while at the outset, but during the rounds of 16, 8, and the final four stepladder round it turned downright fickle. Perfect pocket hits that had been strikes all day (including a perfect 300 game by Franklin’s Nolan White) suddenly turned up 7-10 splits, and worse.
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So frustrated was six-time national title winner Chris Prather after three ‘good-hit, bad-splits’ in the championship semi-final game that he kicked his ball down the gutter and into the pen sweeper. He had to walk down the gutter and get it.
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Top qualifier Michael Davidson, from Versailles, started out like a house afire in the four-game elimination round at 11 am, but by the round of 16, and then 8, he was having the same issues with inconsistent results after perfect pocket hits. Indeed, bowling giveth, and bowling taketh away.
“I’m not sure what caused it,” he added later. “Early on the ball was breaking early with the oil pattern, and I think it lost energy by the time it got to the pins. I was getting to the pocket, but the ball didn’t have any finish.”
Davidson bowed out of the chase in the round of 8.
But it didn’t seem to bother 20-year-old Ethan Fiore, from Tampa, Florida, who steadily kept making adjustments around the oil pattern throughout the day…to the point where by the end of the stepladder round he was hoisting the ball fifteen feet down the alley to allow for the kind of break and action he wanted.
And it didn’t seem to bother little-known Alec Keplinger, who rolled eleven consecutive strikes in the first game of the stepladder bowl-off against Missouri’s Kyle Sherman, all perfect hits in the 1-3 pocket. As the crowd anticipated the perfect 300 game with his twelfth ball, he delivered the identical hit as the previous eleven, only this time not one, or two, but three messenger pins swooped around the 7 pin, all three missing it entirely. He converted the spare for a 299.
Using the popular two-handed style, Ethan Fiore average 223 over two days bowling to capture the title in Minster.
Whatever it was that Michael Davidson couldn’t exactly identify continued to flummox outstanding shotmakers like Pat Dombrowski, Urbana’s Graham Fach, AJ Johnson, and the 2024 Kremer winner, Ryan Leiderbach. One by one they saw things go sideways by the end of the round of 16, or 8, leaving the final four consisting of Ethan Fiore, Alec Keplinger, Kyle Sherman, and Chris Prather to bowl head-to-head for the $4,000 winner’s purse.
Keplinger, the #4 seed, knocked out #3 Sherman, decisively, 299 to 165.
He knocked out #2 seed Prather, 188 to 166. forcing Prather to retrieve his ball from the gutter and pack his bag.
That set up the title match between Keplinger and Fiore, the youngest in memory to win a PBA Major earlier this year when he swept the field to take the Player’s Championship. He’s been an item to talk about since, and he didn’t disappoint over the two days of bowling in Minster, averaging 223.
Fiore fought his way through the oil to throw four straight strikes to begin the final game, forcing Fiore to match. Keplinger was making the same shot that produced eleven strikes in a row just thirty minutes earlier, but at the most unfortunate of times now he was not getting the pin count. Forced to get more of the head pin, he began to falter.
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Fiore, who’s bowled against adult competition since he was 15 years old, himself got shaky after the four-strike start. A nasty 4-7-6-10 split in the seventh frame left the door open for Keplinger, but he couldn’t capitalize. He threw a split of his own in the ninth and Fiore closed out the game, and the title, 214 to 186.
“It was tricky,” he admitted afterwards. “It bowled a little bit like Coldwater today. But I’ve been bowling adult events since I was fifteen so I’ve been around a lot of people who know their stuff. It’s put me ahead of everyone else my age, so a lot of the guys you saw bowl today are more experienced, but I try to stay ahead of them through experience of my own.
Bowler Alec Keplinger watches what would have been his perfect 300 game in the semi-final title match…note the two messenger pins that both missed, leaving the 7 pin on the twelfth strike.
“It’s hard to describe the way that I do it. I’ve learned through failure. I’ve done it on my own.”
And yet he was able to navigate that which ultimately wore down Michael Davidson who had the advantage of bowling on his home lanes.
“I think he got a little stuck today,” said Fiore. “I don’t think he did anything wrong, it just seemed like the longer the day stretched on he got physically incapable of doing what he mentally thought he wanted to do. He did all the right things. I just think [fatigue] was a factor today. It was very warm in here.”
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With a short stop in between this week for two days bowling in Delphos, Fiore will bowl at Coldwater next weekend, having had some prior experience there, and yes…some failure. He doesn’t back down from the challenge, and he doesn’t lack for confidence.
“I’ve always been one of those icewater people. I’m not a big showman, I just go out and do my thing. I don’t try to be more than what I am. I’ve experienced Coldwater, it’s a challenge, but I like the challenge. I’m looking forward to it.”
Missing some familiar names this year – EJ Tackett, Kyle Troup, Chris Via, and Parker Bohn III because of travel conflicts – nonetheless the Minster tournament is becoming a popular stop. The crowds are appreciative, the bowling center is immaculate and convenient, and the Davidson family have produced a winning event for the Minster community.
“It’s not the money, it’s the people,” one of the bowlers said on Saturday. “This is about as close to home as you can imagine on tour.”
And title sponsor Jeff Kremer, a businessman from Versailles, has already doubled down for a sixth annual Classic next year.
A good thing…gets better!
The Davidson family and title sponsor Jeff Kremer (Kremer Roofing, Versailles) present the championship trophy to 2025 winner, Ethan Fiore.
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