(l to r): James Pasciolla and Lukas Fracasso-Verner
Though in 2018, he’d won a stop on the Predator Tour and won the 8th Annual Ginky Memorial’s Amateur Tournament, held under the auspices of the Predator and Tri-State Tours, a win on the New England 9-Ball Series had eluded him. Former Junior National Champion Lukas Fracasso-Verner, in the midst of his best earnings year to date, had finished as runner-up three times this year before entering the Saturday, Oct. 13 stop (#3) on the tour and coming from the loss side to down James “Doc” Pasciolla to claim the title. The $500-added event drew 42 entrants to Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT.
The early going in this event was split evenly into upper and lower brackets of 21 players each, out of which emerged Sal Midolo from the upper bracket and Pasciolla from the lower bracket. Fracasso-Verner had advanced through four opponents to run into Midolo in one of the winners’ side semifinals, as Pasciolla was meeting Jason D’Angelo in the other one.
Midolo squeaked by Fracasso-Verner, double hill (5-6), and in the hot seat match, faced Pasciolla, who’d sent D’Angelo west 5-2. Midolo claimed the hot seat in his second straight double hill match and waited for Fracasso-Verner to get back from a three-match, loss-side winning streak to meet him in the finals.
Over his next three matches, earning him a spot in the finals, Fracasso-Verner gave up a total of only three racks in 22 games. He shut out Buthe to get into the quarterfinals against D’Angelo, who’d defeated Bansrupan, double hill. He gave up only a single rack to D’Angelo in those quarterfinals (8-1) and then denied Midolo a second shot against Pasciolla with a 6-2 victory over him in the semifinals.
In the finals, the difference in their Fargo Rates (632/492) gave Pasciolla four on the wire at the outset. To his credit, Pasciolla chalked up as many racks against Fracasso-Verner in those finals as all three of the youngster’s previous opponents combined (3). Fracasso-Verner chalked up his requisite eight racks to claim the event title.
Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Yale Billiards, as well as sponsors Predator, USAPL New England, Fargo Rate, Bert Kinister, AZBilliards, Inside English, Professor Q-Ball’s National Pool and 3-Cushion News, Delta 13 Racks, MJS Construction, Bob Campbell, Bourgeois Farms, and OTLVISE Billiard Mechanics of America. The next stop (#4) on the New England 9-Ball Series, scheduled for the weekend of October 20-21, will be a $1,000-added event, hosted by Legends Sports Bar in Auburn, ME.
(l to r): Anthony Petruzelli, Mike Dechaine & Lukas Fracasso-Verner
In the end, it was a battle of generations. Though Mike Dechaine hasn’t got enough years on his resume to be considered a member of any ‘older’ generation (in the vein of Earl Strickland, Nick Varner, or Shannon Daulton, as examples), he has certainly earned the title of veteran player. At 16, Lukas Fracasso-Verner is still young enough to be considered a ‘Junior,’ although he’s been competing against fellow juniors, veterans and the Pros for over three years now.
The two met in the finals of the $2,000-added New England 9-Ball Series Players’ Championships. Held on the weekend of March 17-18, the event drew 56 entrants to Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT. To the surprise of many, although not, apparently, to Dechaine himself, Mike lost his opening match to Lance Lisciotti. This launched a 10-match, loss-side winning streak for Dechaine that allowed him to challenge Fracasso-Verner in the finals. Dechaine took the opening set of the true double elimination final, before he (with a three-hour drive ahead of him) and Fracasso-Verner (more or less in his own backyard), both at that stage with a single loss, opted out of a final match and split the top two prizes.
Dechaine’s opening round loss was a 5-6 victory for Lisciotti (as a Pro player, Dechaine was racing to 10). Asked if the loss came as a bit of surprise to him, Dechaine said that it hadn’t.
“No,” he said. “Lisciotti is capable of playing well, and he played well.”
Later in the tournament, Dechaine had the opportunity for a re-match, and the results were quite different. It should also be noted that in Dechaine’s 10-match, loss-side run, he won just over 89% of the games he played, with an aggregate score of 110-13.
As Dechaine began work on the loss side, Fracasso-Verner (an A player) and Anthony Petruzelli (C+) were advancing through their respective upper- and lower-bracket fields for a meetup in the hot seat match. Verner won four to meet Ryan Urso (a B Player) in one winners’ side semifinal, while Petruzelli won his four to face fellow C+ player, Jimmy Gonzalez in the other one. Fracasso-Verner and Petruzelli gave up only two racks between them (one each, to Urso and Gonzalez) to move into the hot seat match. Fracasso-Verner was even stingier in the winners’ side final, giving up none at all to sit in the hot seat.
Meanwhile, back at the (loss-side) ranch, Dechaine was mowin’ ‘em down, one by one. Opening loss-side wins of 10-1, 11-1, and 11-3 brought him into the money rounds, where he defeated Bobby Hilton by shutting him out and then, in his re-match against Lisciotti, sent him home 10-2. This set him up to face Urso, coming over from the winners’ side semifinal. Gonzalez’ first opponent on the loss side was Jack Cooper, who’d shut out Ralph Caton in the first money round, and then survived a double hill fight against Darryl Helm (5-5; Helm, as a C+, racing to 6) to reach Gonzalez.
Dechaine and Cooper handed Urso and Gonzalez their second straight loss. With Urso racing to 4, Dechaine eliminated him 11-1. Cooper gave up only one to Gonzalez in a 5-1 victory (Gonzalez racing to 6). Dechaine took the quarterfinal match 13-1 over Cooper, and completed his loss-side run with a 12-2 victory over Petruzelli in the semifinals.
The final match actually dropped Dechaine’s winning-game percentage down a notch, from its 89.4% after the semifinals to 88% at the end of the first double-elimination set. Dechaine won it 10-2, and then, in consultation with Fracasso-Verner, opted out of trying to make it two in a row.
Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Yale Billiards, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Molinari, Bert Kinister, AZBilliards, Inside English, Professor Q-Ball’s National and 3-Cushion News, Delta 13 Racks, MJS Construction, Bob Campbell, Championship Cloth, and OTLVISE Billiard Mechanics of America. The next stop on the New England 9-Ball Series (#20), scheduled for the weekend of March 24-25, will be a $500-added, 8-Ball event, to be hosted by Legends Billiards, in Auburn, ME.
Joann Cobbett, Kevin Brule, Michael Mathieu, & Ali Raza
Michael Mathieu and Kevin Brule played three times to determine the winner of the February 17 stop (#16) on the New England 9-Ball Series. In each of the three matches, the winner gave up only a single rack. Mathieu won two of the three, including the critical second set of a true double elimination final to claim the event title. The $500-added event drew 47 entrants to Yale Billiards in Wallingford, CT.
They met first in the hot seat match. Mathieu had defeated fellow B player, Ryan Urso 6-2, as Brule was downing fellow C Player, Joann Cobbett, in a match that went double hill. Mathieu gave up the single rack to Brule in this first encounter and sat in the hot seat, waiting for rounds two and three.
On the loss side, Urso picked up Ali Raza, who’d defeated Mike Langley, double hill, and Ryan McQuade 6-2 to reach him. Cobbett drew Marc Murphy, who’d eliminated Ed Murray, double hill and Darryl Helm, 5-1. In a straight-up race to 6, Raza advanced to the quarterfinals over Urso 6-2. By the same score, Cobbett (racing to 6) downed Murphy (racing to 5) 6-2.
Raza then eliminated Cobbett 6-3 in those quarterfinals. Raza then had his loss-side streak ended by Brule in the semifinals, in a match that went double hill.
With Mathieu (B) racing to 6, and Brule (C+) racing to 5, Brule took the double elimination final’s opening set, giving up a single rack. Mathieu returned the favor in the second set, giving up a single rack in a 6-1 win that earned him the event title.
Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Yale Billiards, as well as sponsors Ozone Billiards, Molinari, Bert Kinister, AZBilliards, Inside English, Professor Q-Ball’s National Pool and 3-Cushion News, Delta 13 racks, MJS Construction, Bob Campbell, Championship Cloth, and OTLVISE Billiard Mechanics of America. The next stop on the New England 9-Ball Series (#17), scheduled for February 24, will be the $500-added Joe Brown Memorial Tournament, hosted by Buster’s Billiards in Somersworth, NH.
