Kyle Troup of Taylorsville, North Carolina, toppled defending champion Jason Belmonte of Australia, 248-232, to win his third career PBA Tour title Sunday in the finals of the 2018 Storm Lucky Larsen Masters.

Troup, who, like Belmonte, throws the ball with a two-handed approach, finished off Belmonte in the final frame to claim the title at Baltiska Bowlinghallen in Malmo, Sweden. The event was also part of the European Bowling Tour and World Bowling Tour.

The championship match came down to the final frames despite Troup building a 25-pin lead after four frames. In the ninth frame, Troup left a light seven pin, giving Belmonte a chance to really put the pressure on as he stepped up in the ninth and 10^th frames.

Instead, Belmonte sent the ball wide right and barely got the ball back to the head pin in the ninth frame, leaving the 2-8 combination. He went on to strike out in the 10^th frame but Troup only needed eight on his first shot in the 10^th to win.

Troup, who earned approximately $16,500 for the win, stepped up and drilled the pocket for a strike and the victory in the final frame to secure the title on his first visit to Sweden.

Just like he did in the semifinal, Troup elected to throw a urethane ball – a Storm Pitch Black – in the championship match, while Belmonte decided to hook the lane with a reactive Storm Hy-Road Nano.

Controlling the pocket better and covering less boards turned out to be an advantage for Troup as he threw eight strikes, including seven of eight to start the match, in the title bout. Belmonte actually threw nine strikes in the championship match, but a pair of errant shots – a 2-10 split in the fourth and the 2-8 in the ninth – ultimately did him in.

Troup took care of Ireland’s Christopher Sloan in the semifinal, 235-187, after he got out to a big start to the match. Troup crushed four strikes in a row to open the match and had a 49-pin lead after just four frames as Sloan struggled to hit the pocket.

In the sixth frame, Troup left a light 7-10 split to tighten things up a bit but then rebounded with three consecutive strikes to put the match away. Sloan had a better back-half of the match but in total threw just four strikes with one double in the losing effort.

In the opening contest of the stepladder finals, Sloan took down nine-time PBA champion Bill O’Neill, 236-234, in a tense match. O’Neill stepped up first in the final frame and delivered three perfect strikes to put the pressure on Sloan.

When it was Sloan’s turn to perform, he delivered in a big way. His first shot in the 10^th frame was a no-doubter with all 10 pins back in the pit. The second shot was a little less certain as he had to rely on the six pin to come off the wall and snap out the 10 pin. On his final shot, needing at least nine pins for the win, Sloan again destroyed the pocket for a strike.