 Josh Brothers |
The tour returned to Hagerstown, MD on November 25/26th at Hagerstown Billiards & Café for event 9 of the Tiger 9 Ball Tour. The new room owners Roger Munson and his wife Tammy were very accommodating and excited to host the event. A strong field of 47 players including most of the Top 20 on the year long points list showed up to take a shot at the $1500 added money.
Current points leader Josh Brothers cruised through the top of the bracket joined in the final four by Brandon Shuff who was playing well. The bottom half of the bracket saw Jerry Slivka defeat Mike Davis 9-4. Veteran Don Steele joined these 3 players in the final four winner side by Saturday night. Eight players remained on the 1-loss side.
Brothers and Slivka easily advanced over Shuff and Steele on Sunday 9-1 and 9-5 respectively. These two stars have played each other several times this year. Slivka looked unstoppable and cruised into the hot seat 9-4.
Some strong players were fighting it out in the elimination bracket. Shaun Wilkie put together a string of 5 wins before meeting up with Shuff. Mike Davis had just lost a 7-6 decision to Shuff. A quick 7-3 match sent Wilkie home in the 4th spot. Brothers is focused on the year end points list where he holds a slim lead over Slivka. He placed Shuff into 3rd place with a close 7-5 win to earn a rematch with Slivka. The single set final race to 11 games was much different than the hot seat match. Brothers established an early lead and never looked back winning 11-4. 1st was worth $900 with $600 for 2nd.
A small field of 10 determined ladies played on Sunday. An early match between Kathleen Lawless and My-Hanh Lac went to Lawless 7-3. Points leader Pamela Treadway stopped Lawless 7-3 to take the hot seat. Lac recovered from her loss to post wins over tournament director Ceci Strain and Cheryl Squire. This set up a rematch with Lawless with Lac coming out on top this time 7-3. The single race to 9 final went to the confident Lac 9-5 to win her first Tiger Tour event.
