MONTICELLO, Minn. (July 19, 2018) – Scott Greiner of Sunrise Beach, Mo., made the right equipment adjustments and fired a 1,860 eight-game pinfall total in the second round Thursday to take top qualifier honors in the PBA50 River City Extreme Open presented by Ebonite.

Greiner led qualifying with a 3,626 16-game overall pinfall total (226.63 average) bowling games of 231, 247, 223, 182, 246, 245, 249 and 237 in the second round after finishing Wednesday’s first round with a seventh-place 1,766 pinfall.

“I made all the right ball choices in the second round and that doesn’t happen often,” said Greiner, who earned his first PBA50 Tour top qualifier honor. “I changed balls three times and I started striking with them right away. I didn’t have to waste many frames getting lined up after each change.”

As a result of finishing in the top eight, Greiner leads eight players who will be seeded into Friday’s second round of match play.

Greiner, in his third season on the PBA50 Tour, will be trying to improve on a career-best finish of fifth which came in the 2017 PBA50 Tour Players Championship. His best finish this season was eighth in the PBA50 Mooresville Open.

Greiner edged out PBA Hall of Famer Norm Duke of Clermont, Fla., who finished qualifying in second with a 3,616 pinfall total bowling games of 212, 239, 212, 205, 212, 247, 245 and 256 in the second round.

“Strings of strikes were hard to come by,” said Duke of his second round. “I felt fortunate to get four strikes in a row. Sometimes the best thing to do is acknowledge that it’s going to be difficult and move on from there.

“You never know what you’re going to run into moving from pair to pair,” Duke continued. “You just deal with what’s in front of you and do everything you can to generate some type of momentum.”

In addition to Greiner and Duke, other players finishing in the top eight and advancing to the second round of match play were Brian Kretzer, Dayton, Ohio, 3,607; first round leader Ralph Brunt Jr., Jensen Beach, Fla., 3,593; 2016 PBA50 Rookie of the Year Eddie Graham, Kettering, Ohio, 3,591; 2017 PBA50 Rookie of the Year Michael Haugen Jr., Phoenix, 3,528; Ryan Shafer, Horseheads, N.Y., 3,521, and Lennie Boresch Jr., Kenosha, Wis., 3,520.

Haugen, who currently leads this season’s PBA50 Player of the Year points race, rocketed from 20th in the first round to sixth thanks to a 1,825 pinfall in his second round bowling games of 203, 238, 279, 243, 237, 231, 205 and 189.

Competition continues Friday with a cashers round at 8:30 a.m. CDT followed by the first match play round at noon. After the second match play round at 3:15 p.m. the top five players will be determined for the stepladder finals at 7 p.m.

All final day action will be covered live on PBA’s online bowling channel PBA Xtra Frame on FloBowling.

Release courtesy of Jerry Schneider, PBA Media Relations