Steve Ferraro is no longer 'the other brother'. He's still the older brother of PBA Hall of Famer Dave Ferraro, but he is now a national champion himself. Ferraro, the No. 2 seed in the GBT Senior division, defeated Classic division champ Chuck Pierce, 228-180, to win the GBT Long Island Open and the $13,500 top prize Wednesday evening at Sports Plus entertainment center in Lake Grove, N.Y. Pierce earned $8,800.

In the championship match, Ferraro started with a four-bagger, and Pierce couldn't find the line on the right lane, suffering two opens in the first four frames. Halfway through the match, Ferraro established a 50-pin lead and never lost control rolling a clean 228. Pierce finally hit the right lane with a double in frame 7, but it was too late.

"I've been the other brother for so long – this is my biggest win ever and it's just fantastic," said Ferraro. "For me to go through the field like I did today was unbelievable. "Since I turned 50 I started bowling again and I'm really enjoying the competition, but I didn't really expect to buzz through this field. It was really unexpected, but I'll take it. For 15 years I ran the family bowling center while he bowled. Now it's my turn," he said.

"In a one game match, if you don't get lined up, that's the way it goes," said Pierce. "I was fortunate to figure out the left lane in the earlier match, but I couldn't find it on that pair. That's how it goes; you have to execute and I was a little tentative. Overall it was an outstanding tournament. Grady Creasie bowled fantastic all week, and it was a big step for me to get by him, but in the stepladder anything can happen," he said.

In previous matches, Ferraro defeated 2-time GBT champion David Ozio, 225-223, for the senior crown, and Pierce knocked off Classic leader Grady Creasie, 210-188. Prior to that, Ferraro beat Kerry Fulford, 216-193, and Pierce defeated Mel Wolf, 223-168. In the opening matches of the finals, Fulford defeated Johnny Petraglia, 212-190 and Wolf got by Gary Dickinson, 191-173.

Next week, the GBT moves to E. Providence Lanes, East Providence, Rhode Island for the last stop of its inaugural eight city fall swing.

David Ozio is not slipping. Going into Wednesday night's stepladder finals, he is the #1 seed here at the GBT Long Island Open. If he's able to win only two games tonight, his GBT earnings will soar to $65,500 for only seven weeks.

Wednesday afternoon, he averaged 237 for his six games, 7 pins ahead of his tour leading 230 average for more than 200 games.

Ozio's opponents in tonight's finals will be Steve Ferraro, Johnny Petraglia and Kerry Fulford. The winner of the Petraglia-Fulford match will face Ferraro, and the winner of that game will square off against Ozio for the Senior division title. In the position round game Wednesday afternoon, Mark Roth charged with a 279 final game, forcing Fulford to mark in the tenth to advance. Fulford struck out to make the finals.

"Today was the same game plan as yesterday," said Ozio. "Come out and throw it soft and try to hook it a little more. Some of the pairs I hit today hooked even more, and I was able to understand that and roll a big set. My execution was fair and I'm happy with it overall. I'm looking forward to tonight. So far, I'm zero against Ferraro. I lost to him twice here and I lost to him at the Masters. I've only bowled him three times, so I hope if I get him tonight, I can change that and make it 3-1," he said.

Grady Creasie stayed on cruise control Wednesday afternoon and ended up the Classic leader by a huge 389 pins over second place Chuck Pierce. Creasie has 6036, Pierce 5707. Mel Wolfe and Gary Dickinson complete the top four in the Classic group.

"I didn't cruise very well today," said Creasie. "The backends were a little dry, but it could have been just me being too relaxed and not playing good. I hope I can use the same ball tonight, and just make better shots than I made today. I've got a little more room than the other guys have and I think that's the key. Tonight I'll just try to make shots and stay ahead," he said.

The two division winner will face off tonight in the championship game worth $13,500 to the winner and $8,800 to the runner-up.

David Ozio is back in a position he's seen often on the Generations Bowling Tour as he regained the lead in the GBT Long Island Open in the first round of match play. Ozio won his first four matches Monday night and was never challenged until he lost to Mark Roth in game five 246-245. His 5027 total is almost 200 pins ahead of second place.

After losing the match to Roth, he struggles to a 159-226 loss against Steve Ferraro, but enters the final six games of match play with a comfortable lead.

"I just backed off on the speed tonight, but on the last pair it didn't work," said Ozio. "I probably could have used my normal speed on that pair. The ball just turned the corner harder and I had two big splits and a 3-6-9-10. That pair just had an odd break point," he said.

"When I bowled Mark, he just got up against me. He looked bored tonight, but he threw great shots in that game," added Ozio. "It will be a be an interesting run tomorrow. I'll just try to keep my lead and stay ahead."

Kerry Fulford had a great night Monday, winning all six of his matches to earn second place. Ferraro is third, followed by Roth. Johnny Petraglia struggled Monday night, posting a 1-5 match play record to drop from first to fifth.

In the Classic division, Grady Creasie is in command. He now leads the other three Classic players with a 4813 total. Mel Wolf is second at 4488.

"That's the best I can do," said Creasie. I had a good look tonight. I drilled a new ball with more surface, I had a little room to the right, and I made better shots. I'll start tomorrow with the same ball. I might have to dull it a little, but whatever it takes, I'm going to try to be smart enough to do it," he said.

Johnny Petraglia found a line the last couple of games of the qualifying portion of the GBT Long Island Open Monday. Petraglia started the second round trailing first round leader David Ozio by 42 pins, and the standings stayed the same throughout the second round until Petraglia rolled games of 266, 255 in games seven and eight to take the lead in the Senior Division with 3597 total pinfall. Petraglia averaged 224.8 for the 16 qualifying round games. Willis Willis got the last spot in the Senior division finals with 3352, a 209.5 average.

"I really got lucky because the first six games I was bowling okay, and I kept trying to take more hand out of the ball and go more direct," said Petraglia. "It seemed like the right thing to do and I wasn't getting in trouble. Then, at the end of game six, I decided to see what would happen if I moved in more and hit it a lot harder, and I shot 260 - 250 the last two games. All my pins came in those two games, and it was because I experimented on the fill ball in game six," he said.

Grady Creasie kept the lead he established after round one in the Classic division despite losing a few pins Monday. Creasie leads the four Classic division players going into the match play with a 3321, a 207.5 average. Gary Dickinson captured the last spot with a 3218.

"I feel great, I just tried not to lose too many pins today," said Creasie. "Some of the lanes I just couldn't carry. I made three ball changes today. I just hope I can find the right ball tomorrow and match up better than I did today," he said. Match play starts Tuesday at 6pm.

David Ozio is the king of the new Generations Bowling Tour. Last week in N. Brunswick, NJ, he became the first GBT player to win two titles, and boosted his tour earnings to $52,000 for the first six weeks of the new senior tour.

Sunday, in Long Island, Ozio rolled a couple of early 260+ games and posted an eight game total of 1832 to take the lead in the GBT Long Island Open Senior Division after round one. He is 42 pins ahead of Johnny Petraglia in second, and 45 pins ahead of Mark Roth going into round two of the qualifying portion of the event.

"This is a challenge," said Ozio. Actually, there are two challenges. The approaches are a battle themselves. I'm fortunate I've got solutions for that. I bowled okay today. The low is much different with a lower ceiling and bright lights. It hooks earlier, and it's more difficult to get the ball to the pocket. I'm really impressed that the lanes were very close to the practice session, so it's just business as usual. I'll must come in tomorrow and try to do what I did today," he said.

Ozio is catching a little ribbing from his fellow players about how well he is doing one the new tour, but he is unfazed by the good-natured banter. "There are no holds barred right now," said Ozio. "I'm going to try to win every tournament, no matter how bad they are beating up on my. We all come out here to learn and get better. This is the education ground right here," he said. And taking a cue from the famous song, Ozio said "If you can play here, you can play anywhere."

In the Classic division, Gradie Creasie, Olive Branch, Mississippi shot 1748 to lead round one. Creasie started the event with a big 277 game and leads Gary Dickinson by 52 pins going into Monday's round two.

"I just played what the lanes gave me today," said Creasie. "As long as I can stay down and make consistant shots, I can play inside like today, or outside if I need to. It doesn't matter. I went to a new ball today with a little more surface on it. I had to change for the last two games, and I should have changed sooner. I lost 36 pins the last two games, but you live and learn. It's nice to have 'em chasing me for a change instead of me chasing them. It's a lot more fun," he said.

Monday, eight more games will be rolled, and the top 12 will advance to round robin match play. After the match play, the top four in each division will bowl a stair step finals with $13,500 going to the champion and $8,800 to the runner-up.