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A familiar trio of AWBT veterans get together for season opener, won by Evans-Taylor

Nina Tagley and Rae Evans

Bustamante, Miller take Balls Only, Second Chance events

It was actually back-to-back victories on the Arizona Women’s Billiard Tour (AWBT) for her, albeit separated by 14 months. In November of 2020, with all of the tour’s host locations having closed thanks to the pandemic, Rae Evans-Taylor teamed with Brian Honoway to win the tour’s traditional season finale, a Jack and Jill Scotch Doubles event, hosted by Main Street Billiards in Mesa. One year and two months later, this past weekend (Jan. 29-30), the AWBT opened a new season at Bull Shooters in Phoenix and Rae Evans-Taylor, went undefeated to win the $1,000-added, 9-ball main event that drew 40 entrants to the room.

In a pair of concurrently-run events, Joven Bustamante came from the loss side to win a $250-added, BALLS ONLY 10-Ball event that drew 30 entrants and Sara Miller went undefeated to win a $250-added Second Chance event that drew 12.

Any thoughts that things might be a little different at the end of the 14-month hiatus were dispelled as Evans-Taylor faced two tour veterans in the hot seat match and finals of the 9-ball main event. Both of those veterans, Susan Mello and Nina Tagley, battled her to a double hill final game before she prevailed to claim the 9-ball title.

Evans-Taylor had gotten by Tracy Price, Jill Watson and Veronica Poore to arrive at a winners’ side semifinal against Jaye Succo. Mello, in the meantime, the first of the two tour veterans to face Evans-Taylor, had won a play-in preliminary round over Jodi Hirning and then sent Crystal Parada, Mari Simonson and junior competitor Kennedy Meyman to the loss side to meet up with Jamie Hagerty in the other winners’ side semifinal. Nina Tagley had won her opening match against Colette Kruse, before losing a double hill fight to Amanda Pulley and embarking on a seven-match, loss-side winning streak that would see her compete in the finals.

Mello downed Hagerty 6-4 while Evans-Taylor defeated Succo 7-5. Evans-Taylor claimed the hot seat with a double hill win over Mello.

On the loss side, Hagerty was the one who had the misfortune of drawing Tagley, who was, at the time, four matches into her loss-side trip, which had recently included victories over Marcy Thomas and Veronica Poore. Succo picked up Leandrea Gaff, who was also working on a four-match winning streak that was about to end. Gaff had just eliminated Amanda Pulley, double hill and Colette Kruse 6-3.

Tagley sent Hagerty home 7-1 and in the quarterfinals, faced Succo, who’d ended Gaff’s loss-side streak 7-2. Tagley stopped Succo’s loss-side wins at 1 with a 7-3 win in those quarterfinals.

Tagley and Mello battled in the semifinals, both of them looking for a rematch against Evans-Taylor in the hot seat. Mello had faced her most recently in the hot seat match of this event, while Tagley and Evans-Taylor had battled at other times and other places on the tour.

Tagley won the semifinal battle 7-3 over Mello. The finals were a straight up, extended race to 9 and proved to be the second double hill match of the event for both of them. Evans-Taylor dropped the last 9-ball and claimed the title.

Bustamante wins 7 on the loss side to win BALLS ONLY, Miller wins 4 to claim Second Chance

Joven Bustamante’s winners’ side journey in the 30-entrant BALLS ONLY, 10-ball event saw him give up five racks in two matches, losing the second match to a competitor (Adam Hanten) who only had to chalk up four racks to win, which he did. Bustamante’s subsequent seven-match, loss-side trip saw him give up a total of nine racks in seven matches; two racks, three times/one rack, three times and one shut out. He crowned this achievement with back-to-back shutouts in a true double elimination final over Robert Moreno, who’d been sitting in the hot seat waiting for him.

It was Moreno and Joey Barrera who battled for the hot seat in this one. It turned into a double hill fight that eventually sent Barrera to a doomed semifinal meetup with Bustamante. The two opponents who’d lost out in the winners’ side semifinals – Tim Biggs to Moreno 5-0 and Jesse Johnson to Barrera, double hill – moved to the loss side and walked right into their second straight loss.

Biggs lost to Avery Reece and Johnson ran into Bustamante, four matches into his loss-side streak. Bustamante downed Reece in the quarterfinals 7-1 and began a 21-0 streak that saw him defeat Barrera once in the semifinals and Moreno twice in the finals.

Sara Miller’s run through the 12-entrant Second Chance field was a breeze by comparison. She dropped three opponents 4-2 to claim the hot seat and then defeated one of those three (Kaia Fujimoto) a second time, double hill to claim the Second Chance title.

Fujimoto was Miller’s first and last victory (4-0). Miller was Fujimoto’s second and eighth opponent, representing both of her losses (6-2).

Miller’s third opponent, Mari Simonson, battled for the hot seat, but as the victim of Miller’s third 4-2 victory in a row, she moved to the semifinals to be shut out by Fujimoto. Jill Watson, who’d been defeated by Miller 4-2 in a winners’ side semifinal, survived a double hill fight versus Barbara Lee on the loss side, lost a double hill, quarterfinal match to Fujimoto and finished 4th.

Tour representatives thanked the ownership and staff at Bull Shooters, as well as sponsors Realty One Group, A Best Billiards, Las Glorias Grill, Goober Pet Direct, Your Way Logistics, Idle Hands Vintage, Sophia’s House Cleaning, Avalon Home Performance LLC, Big Time Threads and Friends of the AWBT. The nest stop on the AWBT, scheduled for March 5-6, will be hosted by Griff’s in Las Vegas, NV.

Provencio Double Dips for Diamond Tour Win

Mickey Provencio (Photo courtesy of Rick Schmitz)

The Pechauer Cues Diamond Pool Tour was back at Bullshooters in Phoenix on August 11th and 12th, with 51 competitors playing 10-Ball on the 9’ tables.

 

Az Fans were excited to see Arizona’s Mosconi Cup hopeful Mitch Ellerman in attendance in this one and he looked unstoppable early in the event, until a tough 5-7 loss to Fernando Diaz late on Saturday,
 
With the top two points list players (Tim Daniel and Joey Barrera) unable to get out of the second round of the winner’s side, fans in attendance were looking forward to some new faces in the final rounds of the event. Those fans would not be disappointed as the final four undefeated players including two players in their first events of the season (Junior Flores and New Mexico’s Mickey Provencio). Those two players were joined by 59th ranked Peter Horton and 81st ranked Diaz.
 
Horton had been crushing opponents for the entire event, with wins over Vincent Sbelgio, Rob James and James Stacy. He would continue player at that pace with a 7-2 win over Diaz on Sunday. On the other half of the winner’s side, Provencio sent a hot shooting Junior Flores to the one loss side 8-2. Horton would then go on to take the hot-seat with a 6-5 win over Provencio.
 
On the one loss side, Adam Kroll and Mitch Ellerman were heading for a showdown. Kroll had wins over Brad Johnson, Rick Schmitz and Diaz, while Ellerman eliminated Brian Long, Manny Luevano and Flores. With Ellerman giving up 10-3 against Kroll, he knew he couldn’t afford a let down of any kind and he turned his play up a notch for a 10-0 win. Unfortunately for Ellerman, Provencio was ready for him in the semi-final match and sent Ellerman back to Las Vegas with a 6-4 loss.
 
The finals then got underway between Horton and Provencio and it looked like the wait in the hot-seat teamed up with the tight table in the pit to get the better of Horton. Where he was running racks earlier in the event, the pockets just seemed to close up on him in the finals. Before he knew what hit him, Provencio had won the first set 8-3. Things went from bad to worse for Horton, as the first set loss did away with any confidence he had built up and Provencio cruised to another 8-3 win for first place. Provencio was understandably elated with the win, his first on the Diamond Pool Tour.
 
The Diamond Pool Tour will take it’s annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas in September, playing it’s 5th stop of the season at Griffs on September 8th and 9th.
 
The Diamond Pool Tour is sponsored by …
Diamond Billiard Products 
J Pechauer Custom Cues
Arizona Natural Selections
Casino Del Sol
Discount Mattress Barn
JB Cases
Aramith
Simonis

 

Hard Work Pays Off For Barrera On Diamond Pool Tour

Joey Barrera (Photo courtesy of Rick Schmitz)

Sometimes the hard work that a player puts in for one event pays dividends in other events. That was the case for Joey Barrera as his preparation for this year’s Saguaro Cup helped him score an undefeated win at the Diamond Pool Tour’s 3rd stop of the season at Freezer’s Ice House on June 9th – 10th.

 

Barrera’s 604 rating saw him giving up spots to some players that sounded impossible on paper. His first match of the event saw him giving up five games in a race to eight to Brandon Jewell. To make matters worse, Jewell broke and ran the first rack. Barrera is not known for ever giving up though and he bore down to win eight of the next nine racks for a hill-hill victory. “That win definitely gave me motivation for the rest of the event” said Barrera.
Barrera went on to score wins over Ricky Teyechea, Eric Beaver, Jose Gonzalez, Tim Daniel and then Joe Guerra for the hot-seat.
 
The field of 73 players held a fair share of players competing in their first tour stop of the season, and that lead to a number of players enjoying their first tour cashes of the season including David Friedel, Bryan Bach, Scott Vogelsberg, Jose Gonzalez, Dave Mark, Bill Vander Weyst and Guerra.
 
Dave Mark dropped a match to Tim Daniel late on Saturday night, but bounced back with wins over Brian Long, Josh Murphy and Vander Weyst to earn another shot at Daniel on the one loss side. Mark would settle for 4th after dropping that match to Daniel 9-5. Daniel would then go on eliminate Guerra 9-5 to earn another shot at Barrera in the finals.
 
Daniel had lost to Barrera 7-3 on the winner’s side and knew the 9-7 race in the finals would be a tough one. Barrera came out quick and took a 2-0 lead, but Daniel came back to win the next five racks. The players traded the next six racks for a 8-5 Daniel lead but Daniel would get no farther as Barrera won the next two racks for the hill-hill win and first place.
 
Barrera’s #1 fan, Cheryl Timmonen, felt that all of the practice for Saguaro Cup had certainly helped Barrera bring his ‘A-Game’ on this weekend. “He has been putting in an average of 25 hours of practice a week, on top of a full-time job” she said.
 
Daniel’s second place finish (his second in two events) was more than enough to keep him in first place on the tour points list, and Barrera’s win moved him to second place. Stop 2 winner, AJ Jones, holds third place on the list with Nick De Leon and Tom Dilorenzo filling out the top five spots.
 
The Diamond Pool Tour is sponsored by …
Diamond Billiard Products 
J Pechauer Custom Cues
Arizona Natural Selections
Casino Del Sol
Discount Mattress Barn
JB Cases
Aramith
Simonis