Final Puts Roommates in a 7-10 Split

Before the $300,000 AC Delco Classic started, there was a strong possibility that roommates Jason Couch and Parker Bohn III, the tournament’s top-seeded bowlers, would meet in the final.

And that’s just the way it turned out Saturday.

Couch and Bohn advanced to the championship game, and even then there was little to separate them.

Behind 27 pins going into the 10th frame, second-seeded Bohn, of Jackson, N.J., defeated top-seeded Couch, 238-234, with three strikes in a row to win the $48,000 top prize at Lakewood’s Cal Bowl.

“Beating your roommate is the hardest thing to do out here,” said Bohn, who ended a 13-game televised losing streak. “You form a brothership. You find yourself rooting for each other and you help each other all week. I feel bad for Jason, but at the same time happy for myself.”

It was Bohn’s 12th title overall and his first since the 1995 Columbia 300 Open when he defeated, off all people, Couch.

“It was obvious that he had a long losing streak and as it turned out, his last two wins came against me,” Couch said. “It’s starting to get a little sore.”

The second-place finish was doubly disappointing for Couch, who is 1-3 overall against Bohn in finals. He missed his daughter, Courtney’s, first birthday in Clarmont, Fla.

“She has been my main focus all week,” Couch said. “This time last year was the most important day of my life and today was right up there with it.”

In the stepladder quarterfinals, Pete Weber defeated Mike Aulby and Walter Ray Williams, the PBA player of the year, before being beaten by Bohn in the semifinals.

Between them, the five finalists in Saturday’s championship round had won a total of 84 titles, making it the most successful grouping in PBA history.