Alex Aguiar of Dartmouth, MA pulled off one of the major upsets of the opening session of the PBA Tour’s Go RVing Match Play Championship at the Norwich Bowling and Entertainment Center in Norwich, CT, defeating former Player of the Year Chris Barnes, the defending champion of the tournament, in five games of a best-of-seven match. Aguiar advanced to the main field by finishing 5th in yesterday’s Tour Qualifying Round, pairing him against Barnes when the final bracket was released. The two bowlers split the first two games before Aguiar took command of the match by throwing games of 279 and 268, then won the clinching game by a score of 254-213. The tournament is being contested on a mixed pattern, with the Shark on the left lane and the Cheetah on the right lane.
I will continue to follow Alex’s progress and post either at the end of Alex’s run or as events warrant. Interestingly, this match may have been a preview of Saturday’s installment of the Chris Barnes Challenge, as Aguiar had the high bid of $1,500 yesterday, but the three-game, total pinfall match had not been finalized at press time.
The Tenth Board 
The match has been finalized: Alex Aguiar will meet Chris Barnes again on Saturday night at 9:00 PM ET in the Chris Barnes Challenge. The winner will receive the $3,000 pool, as Barnes matches the high bidder. The match will be webcast on PBA.com’s Xtra Frame subscription service.
PBA.com’s article recapping the events of Day 1 includes some of Alex Aguiar’s post-match comments.