DATE: Wednesday, November 5, 1997           TAG: 9711050499

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BILL LEFFLER, CORRESPONDENT 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   55 lines

FLORIDIAN REACHES PBA FINAL 3 OTHERS WILL COMPETE FOR THE CHANCE TO MEET HIM IN FINALE

The $64,000 question will be answered tonight when the Professional Bowlers Association Ebonite Challenge winds up on national television at the Virginia Beach Pavilion.

It will take just three games of bowling on a pair of specially constructed lanes.

Competition will start at 7:30 p.m.

The first two games will determine the championship of the PBA tourney where a starting field of 118 has been trimmed to the four best after three days of action at AMF Western Branch.

Up for grabs is $54,000 - $25,000 to the champion, $13,000 to the runner-up, $9,000 for third and $7,000 for fourth.

Steve Hoskins of Tarpon Springs, Fla., seeking his second tour victory in four weeks, led the 24 finalists in match play Tuesday night, posting a pinfall of 9,350 and gaining 510 bonus points by registering a 17-7 match play record (30 points for each victory) for a 9,860 total.

Joining Hoskins in the nationally televised finals are Bob Learn Jr. of Erie, Pa., Amleto Monacelli of Venezuela, and Walter Ray Williams Jr. of Stockton, Calif.

They will bowl a single game in a unique new format that has all three competing simultaneously.

The winner will face Hoskins for the title.

This game will be followed by the Ebonite Challenge Match in a winner-take-all $10,000 competition. It features the three leading pointmakers in the first five events of the Fall tour.

Hoskins and Jason Couch of Clermont, Fla., already have qualified for two of the three spots. The other will not be determined until the wind-up of the regular tournament. It's a battle between Monacelli and Williams.

``All I can say is that I'm tickled pink to have a chance in both of them,'' said Hoskins, a 28-year-old righthander who has five career victories.

Hoskins began the eight-game closing block in third place, vaulting in front by winning four of his first five matches. He averaged 222.62 for the entire 42 games in the tourney.

Learn jumped to second with a win in his final position match, finishing 35 points behind Hoskins. Monacelli, who was the leader after six games in the finale, dropped to third with 9,823, 47 behind Learn.

Williams, the top money winner on the tour and reigning Player of the Year, bumped Doug Kent out of the fourth spot in the closing game. Williams came from eighth place in the last eight games.

It's a made-for-TV finale with the Player of the Year (Williams), a former two-time Player of the Year in Monacelli, a bowler who averaged 282 with a 300 game on an earlier TV match in Learn and a red-hot Hoskins ready to take on one of them. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Steve Hoskins eyes 2nd tour win in 4 weeks.

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