North American Bowling News
Fritts Spoils Divas Daily Double, Corrals PWPT Title in Dundalk
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| Three-time PWPT winner, Billy Fritts |
In an extremely uncanny twist of fate, there was a remarkable parallel developing on November 20th, 2011--or to accentuate the uniqueness of the day even more—the date of 11-20, 2011. At almost exactly the same time that Karole McDonnell was making history on the northern side of the Canadian border in the Club Tour unisex fivepin event... down south, Finksburg, Maryland's Stacey Gaegler was attempting to pull off the 2nd half of the most amazing Divas' Daily Double in the history of bowling. Gaegler was the top seed in the Pop Whitten Pro Tour, which is also an Open event for men and women, and would need one more win to finish the job. To make things even more amazing, Stacey was in the midst of an undefeated run in divisional play—the only bowler with a 5-0 record, and she also had the highest 5-game pinfall total of any of the ladder contestants at a stout 772 total. But Baltimore’s Billy Fritts had his own designs on duckpin history. In search of his 3rd win on the Pop Whitten Pro Tour, Fritts was the 2nd seed, and if he were to add notch number 3 to his holster, he’d have to go through two fierce opponents. When the action came to Billy’s rung of the stepladder, it would be in the form of the talented young star, Chris Kruger. Billy was on his usual calculated and tenacious “A” game, and pulled out a close win with a 20-box in the 10th frame for a 140-130 win. In the title match, Fritts was bulletproof and got an opening in the early stages of the contest. Gaegler, who is a past winner on the WNDA, was competing in her first final on the PWPT and performed admirably. But the seasoned veteran Fritts, didn’t give Stacey a chance to exhibit her reputation for comebacks. Billy maintained his poise, and stayed ahead to finish with an impressive 146-127 triumph.