Williams Gains the Top Spot for Bowling Finals

Mark Williams averaged 219 in his final eight games Friday to earn the top seed for today’s televised finals of the $125,000 Professional Bowlers Assn.’s Greater Los Angeles Open at Gable House Bowl in Torrance.

Williams, 28, of Beaumont, Tex., took a 322-pin lead into the final eight games of match play and finished with a 130-pin advantage over Mark Baker of Garden Grove. Williams’ pinfall for 42 games was 10,214.

Baker, who led the field by 156 pins after 18 games but slipped to fifth place after 34 games, averaged 246 in his final eight games. Baker finished his last game by throwing nine consecutive strikes en route to a 279 game to lock up second place. Baker began the last game with a three-pin lead over Marhall Holman.

Holman, of Medford, Ore., who started the final block in sixth place, finished third with a 269 in his final game.

Steve Wunderlich of St. Louis wound up fourth, and Del Warren of Lake Worth, Fla., earned the fifth, and last, spot in the finals by rolling a 289 in his final game.

Today’s step-ladder championship round will begin at noon with Warren facing Wunderlich. The winner then will meet Holman, with that winner facing Baker. The winner of the third match will face Williams for the $18,000 first prize.