With eight games of match play remaining to determine the stepladder finalists, Kris Prather sits in the top spot at the 2019 PBA Lubbock Sports Open.

Prather went just 4-4 in match play in Friday afternoon’s opening round but it was enough to keep him in the lead with a 29-game total of 6,607, including 30 bonus pins for each victory, at South Plains Lanes in Lubbock, Texas.

The final round of match play will take place Saturday at 8 a.m. Central live on FloBowling to determine the five players who will advance to Sunday’s stepladder finals. With the top seven players separated by less than 200 pins, it should make for an interesting final round of matches.

Results: PBA Lubbock Sports Open Round 1 Match Play

Prather, still looking for his first career PBA Tour title, leads by just seven pins over Kyle Troup, who has 6,600 and went 6-2 in matches. Michael Tang post a 7-0-1 record and is third with 6,595, just 12 pins off the lead.

Left-hander Rhino Page made a big move up to fourth place after posting a 5-2-1 record to total 6,525, while Sean Rash is fifth with 6,523.

Jakob Butturff, who could become the first player in PBA Tour history to earn the top seed in four consecutive tournaments this week, lost ground on Prather in Friday afternoon’s match play round.

Butturff went just 3-5 in matches and sits in 10^th place, nearly 250 pins off the lead, making his chances of earning the top seed unlikely but not impossible.

The players continued to face dual patterns in match play with the 42-foot Scorpion pattern on the left lane and the 32-foot Wolf pattern on the right lane. That setup will continue Saturday morning and also for Sunday’s stepladder finals.