Michael Machuga rolls 300 game, breaks 32-game PBA scoring record

Machuga rolls 300, sets 32-game record

WICHITA, Kan. — Michael Machuga rolled a perfect game and broke the Professional Bowlers Association’s 32-game scoring record to take the fourth-round lead Thursday night in the Pepsi Red, White and Blue Open.

The 33-year-old Machuga, from Erie, Pa., averaged 250.50 for 32 games, posting an actual total of 8,016 pins to break the PBA record of 7,940 set by Parker Bohn III in Japan in 1999. Machuga’s bonus pins after posting a 5-3 record in match play, gave him a total of 8,166 pins and a 67-pin lead over Patrick Allen of Wesley Chapel, Fla.

“I got off to a rocky start,” said Machuga, who sold his Jeep to raise money for the trip to Wichita, “but all of a sudden, the lanes made sense, the carry is especially easy for me to read, and I’ve used the same ball for 28 of the 32 games.”

Machuga threw the 24th perfect game of the tournament, tying the tour mark for most 300s in one event set in Peoria, Ill., in 1996. David Ruder of Edmond, Okla., then broke the record with 300 No. 25, and Walter Ray Williams Jr. of Ocala, Fla., capped the first match-play round with the 26th 300.