Running two separate events on a single weekend is hard enough, but Nick Brucato, who heads up the Western New York Tour traveled from two locations about an hour and half apart on Saturday and Sunday, January 26 & 27, and not only ran separate events, but won them, as well. On Saturday, at Outback Billiards in Elmira, NY, he conducted what he called a "six-man challenge," and won three matches to go undefeated. On Sunday, at Camelot Billiards in Rochester, the entrant number doubled, and Brucato was challenged in the finals by Ed Torres, who defeated him in the first set of a true double elimination final. Brucato came back to win the second set and chalk up his second event victory in two days.
At Saturday's six-man challenge, Brucato picked up an opening round bye, which put him among the final four winners, where he defeated Sean Meyer 7-3. He moved on to the hot seat match with Kevin Zuniga, who'd defeated Brett Fenstermacker 5-3. Brucato then shut Zuniga out 7-0.
Fenstermacker moved west to meet up with Joe Pantalunas (originally defeated by Meyer), while Meyer picked up Mike Nichols (originally defeated by Zuniga). Pantalunas and Meyer prevailed, both by 5-3 scores, to meet each other in the quarterfinals. Fenstermacker survived a double hill match in those quarterfinals, only to have his day ended in a double hill semifinal against Zuniga. Brucato completed his short, undefeated run with a 7-2 victory over Zuniga in the finals.
On Sunday, Brucato was once again among the winners' side final four, facing Ed Torres this time. Sean Ven and Lewis Riccio squared off in the other winners' side semifinal. Brucato gave up only a single rack against Torres, as Riccio was busy sending Ven west 5-3. Brucato took the hot seat match 7-2.
Torres moved west to pick up Don Purdy, who'd gotten by Brian Cam 4-3 and Phil Johnson 5-3. Ven drew Jose Mirabelle, who'd defeated Terry Buhlman and Jack Pribe, both 6-4. Torres moved on with a double hill win over Purdy, as Mirabelle handed Ven his second straight loss 6-4. Torres then downed Mirabelle 6-3 in the quarterfinals, and got a second shot versus Brucato with a 5-2 win over Riccio in the semifinals.
Torres took the opening set of the true double elimination final 7-3. Brucato tightened things up and gave up only a single rack in the second set to complete a second straight event victory on his own tour.
