WICHITA, Kan. – Dom Barrett of England used four bowling balls, including three in the semifinal, as he climbed the ladder Wednesday to win the 2018 U.S. Open at Northrock Lanes.

In a tense championship match, Barrett delivered a clutch strike in the final frame before nervously leaving a 4-6 split and barely picking up the six pin to lock up the title, 207-206, over runaway tournament leader Jakob Butturff.

“To start the year with a win and then to finish it with one feels unbelievable,” said Barrett, who won the DHC Japan Cup in January to start the PBA Tour season. “I’m not quite sure how that happened today. I’m going to take a little reflection and enjoy it over the Christmas period before we have a very big 2019.”

Barrett fell behind after five frames of the title match when he left and missed the 3-6-9-10 spare. That allowed Butturff to move into the lead, a position he held until the final frame.

Finishing the match first, Butturff could have locked up the title with a strike and nine pins but instead left a 10 pin on his first shot in the 10^th to give Barrett a chance.

Barrett stepped up and buried the first hit in the final frame before pulling the ball and leaving a 4-6 split on his second shot. Needing to convert one of the remaining pins, he nearly missed the six pin to the left but it held on to give him the win.

Over the course of the day Barrett made many ball changes, switching between four different balls throughout the stepladder finals.

“I’m not going to go in with a complete game plan of what I’m going to do, you have to go on instinct,” Barrett said. “On TV, that’s sort of what you have to do. You sort of follow your instincts, believe in yourself, trust your gut and go and execute. I felt like I did a really good job at that.”

After averaging 261 in the two opening matches of the stepladder finals, Barrett made a series of gutsy ball changes in the semifinal against Kristopher Prather and it paid off with a 226-222 victory.

Barrett, who had been playing up the boards outside, changed balls and moved deeper inside to start the semifinal. The move looked questionable after Barrett left a 10 pin in the first frame and a light four pin in the second frame.

That’s when Barrett went to the bag again, switched balls and stuck with it until the fifth frame, but in the sixth frame after the commercial break, Barrett switched for a third time to close out the match, moving a little more to the right.

Prather, meanwhile, started the match striking on six of his first seven shots before going Brooklyn and leaving a six pin, which he missed. That proved to be a turning point in the match as Prather looked uncomfortable getting the ball far enough right on the left lane.

Needing a strike and eight pins in the 10^th to lock up the win, Prather pulled the ball through the face on his first shot and left the 3-6, giving Barrett an opportunity to steal the match.

Barrett stepped up in the final frame and delivered two strikes and nine on the fill to pick up the victory.

In a pressure-packed match to advance to the semifinal, Barrett advanced by defeating EJ Tackett, 264-248, after Tackett failed to deliver a double in the final frame.

Tackett led most of the match after Barrett opened in the second frame when he missed the 4-9 split. Barrett, however, rebounded by throwing nine consecutive strikes before leaving a six-count on the fill ball.

Tackett finished the match last and had a chance to control his own destiny. Needing a double and six pins on the fill, Tackett left a 10 pin on his first shot in the final frame. The six pin gave the 10 a tap, but it wasn’t enough to knock it over, eliminating Tackett.

“I just tried to make sure I got my ball in the oil so I didn’t 2-10 because I 2-10’d so many times this week,” Tackett said of the 10 pin in the final frame. “It wasn’t going to do it on that shot, but all the pins didn’t fall and that’s bowling.”

In the opening match of the stepladder finals, Barrett started with strikes on five of his first six shots to build an early lead against Marshall Kent to win 258-203.

Although Kent rebounded with strikes in frames seven through nine, Barrett stepped up in the ninth and 10^th frames and was perfect to close out the match.

Kent got out of the gates with a double but then opened in two of the next three frames.

In the third frame, Kent left the 2-10, which he failed to convert, which was followed by the 2-4-10, which he made.

In the fifth frame, Kent missed the headpin right, leaving the 1-2-8. He hit the right side of the headpin on the spare, leaving the eight standing for another open. The deficit proved too large for Kent to overcome.

“I haven’t been throwing it good all week, but I’ve been good finding miss room,” Kent said. “I was uncomfortable and it showed. When I finally found it again, Dom shot 250 at me and what can you do about that?”

The PBA Tour will go on hiatus for the rest of the year with competition resuming right after the first of the year in Arlington, Texas, at the PBA Hall of Fame Classic, which kicks off a lengthy stretch of events for the PBA.