A field of 74 players took their shot at the $3500 added in prize money at the 4th Annual PA State 9-ball Championship at Lucky Break Billiards in Indiana Pa.
Ian Costello, Leon Mroz and Scott Haas, all three of the past winners of the event, were in attendance for this one, but none of them made much noise this time.
The match for the hot-seat was won by Jerry Slivka from Pittsburgh, who defeated Brian Groce 9-8. At the same time this match was going on, Dave Daya from Mt Carmel PA was eliminating Pat McNally 9-8 on the one loss side. McNally finished in fourth place.
Groce took the loss to Slivka in stride and confidently took the trip to the one-loss side where he defeated Daya 9-5 to set up the rematch with Slivka in the extended single elimination final match.
The second time turned out to be the charm for Groce, who defeated Slivka 13-9 in the finals.
Groce collected $5725 including calcutta money for first place, while Slivka pocketed for $3365 in second place prize money. Daya and McNally took home $1940 and $1220 each.
Final Results:
1st Brian Groce
2nd Jerry Slivka
3rd Dave Daya
4th Pat McNally
5th/6th Tom D'Alfonso, Mike Davis
7th/8th BJ Ussery, Shaun Wilkie
9th/12th Shawn Graham, Ed Smith, Scott Haas, Denver Barger
13th/16th Sy Brown, Matt Krah, Rich Schmiegel, Norm Wines
Photo and information courtesy of Mark Whiteside
