Dave Grau took down two different opponents in a hot seat battle and finals to capture the top prize in a Western New York Tour stop on Saturday, September 14. The event drew 24 entrants to Camelot Billiards in Rochester, NY.
Grau's hot seat opponent was tour director Nick Brucato. Grau had sent Cory Gray west 8-5, while Brucato was sending Ron Casanzio over 8-4. Grau defeated Brucato 8-5 and waited in the hot seat for what turned out to be the return of Casanzio.
Gray moved and ran into Mark Creamer, who'd defeated Don Purdy and Rich Fontinez, both 6-4. Costanzio drew Kyle Bova, who'd eliminated Joe Herring 8-3 and Tito Ortiz 8-4. Creamer advanced to the quarterfinals 6-4 over Gray and was met by Casanzio, who'd defeated Bova 8-1.
Casanzio stopped Creamer's loss-side ambitions 8-3 in those quarterfinals, and then ended Brucato's hopes for a finals re-match with Gray, winning the semifinal matchup 8-6. Grau, though, stopped Casanzio, winning the final contest 8-4 to claim the event title.
The Western New York Tour held two events on the weekend of March 3-4. One was a regularly scheduled stop on the tour at Premium Billiards in Syracuse, NY, while the second, a fundraiser to benefit a local league player, Brad Rath, to help him offset medical costs associated with a recent diagnosis of cancer, was held three hours away in Rockport, NY. The regular tour stop drew just seven entrants, while the charity event drew 44. The charity event raised over $3,000 to aid Rath, through the sale of gift baskets containing a variety of items, including cue sticks and cases.
The seven-entrant regular stop was won by Marco Clark, who defeated tour director Nick Brucato in the battle for the hot seat, and then, once Brucato had been defeated by Lance Kellogg 6-5 in the semifinals, defeated Kellogg in a two-set final; 4-5, 5-2. Clark earned $90, while Kellogg took home $25.
In the 44-entrant charity event, which was organized by Brucato, but handled, on-site, by Roger Jackson, George Seacor went undefeated. The 8-ball tournament moved quickly, because it employed races to two on the winners’ side and single game matches on the losers’ side. From among the winners’ side final four, Seacor sent Mark Hoyer west 2-1, as Krysten Swanger, by the same score, sent Brad Koker over. Seacor got into the hot seat with a 2-1 victory over Swanger.
Koker moved over to face Andy Swanger (father to semifinalist, Krysten), who’d defeated Roger Jackson and the object of the fundraising event, Brad Rath, himself. Hoyer drew Joe Herring, who was in the midst of a four-game winning streak on the loss side, which would carry him to the semifinals. He’d defeated Butch Laughlin and Audrey Rath (Brad’s daughter) to reach Hoyer. Swanger dropped Koker, as Herring got by Hoyer, and the event was one match away from featuring a father-daughter semifinal.
Herring won the quarterfinal match, which proved to be his last, as he went on to the semifinals and a defeat at the hands of the younger Swanger. Swanger moved back for a second crack at Seacor, but was shut out, completing Seacor’s undefeated run.
