Title Pursuit Continues for Forkel : Bowling: Chatsworth resident knocks on the door with second-place finish in Wichita Open.

Eric Forkel is on a roll.

The Chatsworth resident and 1978 Van Nuys High graduate finished second in the $130,000 Wichita Open, which concluded Saturday. It was his best performance on the Professional Bowlers Assn. national tour, surpassing the third-place finish in last month’s Seattle Open.

Forkel, a 30-year-old left-hander, held a six-pin lead after six frames of the title match against Chris Warren. But Forkel could manage only spares in the final four frames in a 238-210 loss.

“It was quite exciting for me,” Forkel said from Austin, Tex., where he is in 28th place after six games in the $135,000 Columbia 300 Open. “In the middle of the game, I got a little defensive and let him get off the ropes and he got me in the end.”

Immediately after the match, televised nationally by ABC, Forkel expressed optimism about eventually winning a national tournament.

“It’ll come sometime,” said Forkel, who defeated reigning PBA player of the year Amleto Monacelli of Venezuela, 245-182, in the semifinals. “There’s a tremendous amount of pressure with the finals and TV and all. I’m happy with how I did and I know a win will come.”

According to Forkel, television’s presence affects the bowlers.

“There are a lot of lights, and that makes it warm down there,” Forkel explained. “Just the fact you’re the only two bowling and millions of people watching and it comes down to one game. You have to bowl and then wait for commercials. The first time in Seattle was quite the experience, and this time it got a little bit better and I was more used to what was going on.”

Forkel credits his coach, Len Mal, for his success at Wichita. Mal, who also instructed PBA Hall of Famers Dave Davis, Johnny Petraglia and Dave Soutar, worked with Forkel at the $125,000 Tucson Open, the week before the Wichita tournament. The key technique Mal imparted to Forkel was in dealing with the Tucson lanes’ oil patterns. Forkel utilized the approach in Wichita, which had similar patterns.

Forkel received $10,500 for his runner-up finish, increasing his earnings this year to $31,495, 39th on the tour.

To Forkel, bowling is a livelihood, and steady earnings mean the difference between competing or not.

Finances, namely the $1,000 per week it costs to compete on the tour, keep Forkel from being a full-time national tour participant. Instead, he enters about 10 national events a year, plus regional events, of which he has won several. He will next defend his title in the PBA Showboat Western Region Open in Las Vegas, which draws more bowlers than any other West Coast regional.

However, Forkel said “things are starting to fall into place” to get the backing to compete full time beginning in January.