FAIRLAWN, Ohio – Australia’s Jason Belmonte maintained his lead on the field after the second round of match play Friday afternoon at the 2019 PBA Tournament of Champions.

Belmonte, who led by 262 pins coming into the day, now leads by 248 pins with a 34-game total of 8,198, a 230.53 average, at AMF Riviera Lanes. He has a match-play record of 12-4.

The final eight-game block of round robin match play takes place at 6 p.m. Eastern today live on FloBowling and the five finalists for Sunday’s stepladder will be determined.

Results: PBA Tournament of Champions Match Play Round 2

After the fifth of eight games in the Friday, Belmonte’s lead had ballooned to more than 400 pins, however, back-to-back games of 176 and 179 prevented the two-hander from pulling away from the field.

In the final match of the second round, Belmonte lost to Michael Machuga, an outspoken critic of the two-handed style, 225-216. Belmonte had a chance to strike out to beat Machuga by one. He got the first strike but left a 10 pin on his second shot.

One player who made a big move Friday was Sean Lavery-Spahr, who jumped from sixth place to second with eight games to go. Lavery-Spahr has gone 8-7-1 in matches and totaled 7,950. Among his games in the second round were a 300 and a 299 to give him a big boost.

Marshall Kent sits in third place with a 12-4 record and 7,890 total, while Darren Tang is fourth with a 7,761 total and 9-7 record. Machuga rounds out the top five with 7,760 and an 8-8 record.

Lavery-Spahr and Tang each had to bowl the pre-tournament qualifier this week to make it into the main field. Only PBA Tour champions were seeded directly into the event, while PBA Regional, PBA50 and PBA Women’s Series champions were able to earn spots through the PTQ.