Dom Barrett stormed his way to the lead in the PBA World Championship with a 237 average and 10-6 match play record.

Barrett took home his only PBA Tour title in the Scorpion Championship last year. He finished qualifying in 7th place and now holds a six-pin lead over Jason Belmonte. Rhino Page finished third and Sean Rash finished up the night in fourth place.

The final eight games of match play to determine the five players who will advance to Sunday’s ESPN stepladder finals begins at for 2 p.m. PT on Thursday.

The PBA World Championships is the concluding event of the World Series of Bowling, and the PBA’s first major championship of the 2012-13 season. ESPN will air the finals on Sunday, Jan. 13.

“When I played the finals of the Scorpion, I couldn’t get my ball through the pins,” Barrett said. “I left a lot of corner pins, but today the condition was more like what I’m used to seeing in Europe and I was able to get the corner pins out.

“I actually thought I bowled quite well in the Scorpion semifinal round, but I just couldn’t get my ball to match up. I made the adjustments today and they worked.

“Bowling here on the PBA Tour the last year, I’ve learned so much,” the three-time World Bowling Writers Bowler of the Year added. “It’s really a steep learning curve, but it’s also really special when you see the results of your hard work pay off.

“My game plan worked well today. I’m just going to try to keep striking. I know these other guys are coming after me. They’re going to bowl well, so I need to bowl well, too.”

You can follow the scoring along at home through pba.com.