Joe Darigis
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour was back in action over the Halloween weekend. This time, Mike Zuglan had the tour at American Pool & Billiards in Portland Maine, with a field of 32 players, including the 2018 and 2019 winner at this room, Kyle Pepin. Pepin was shooting for a three-peat and looked to be well on his way to that achievement. Tour regular Joe Darigis had other plans though.
Darigis and Pepin both made it through Saturday’s matches unscathed. Darigis had Saturday wins over Derrick Burnham, Bob Dennis and Nick Brucato, while Pepin beat Mike Giurleo, Jim Hayden and Cody Porter to qualify for Sunday play. Joining them on the winner’s side on Sunday were Ben Savoie and Dave Hall.
Hall made quick work of Darigis on Sunday morning 9-3, while Pepin kept his streak going and defeated Savoie 9-5. Pepin then went on to take the hot-seat in a 9-7 battle with Hall.
Darigis took the trip to the one loss side and found Giurleo waiting. Giurleo had just eliminated Joe’s Dad, Bob Darigis, and was looking for a clean sweep for this event. Darigis avenged his Dad’s loss though, with a 7-5 scoreline. Darigis then sent Ben Savoie to the seats with another 7-5 win and then defeated Hall in the semi-final match 7-2.
Darigis came into the finals against Pepin with the unenviable task of trying to defeat Pepin twice. Pepin’s last Joss Tour match loss at American Pool & Billiards was in the finals back in 2018, and he came back to win that match in the second set. The first set of the finals, this time, went to Darigis hill-hill. The second set was just a little less stressful as Darigis completed the double dip with a 7-5 win.
Sunday’s second chance tournament did see a repeat, as Jim Hayden defended his win from the 2019 second chance tournament with an undefeated win. Hayden had wins over Gary Bryant, Larry Haskell, Steve Sutton and then Nick Brucato to take the hot-seat. The win over Brucato was a hill-hill match and Hayden repeated that scoreline with another hill-hill win over Brucato in the finals.
