Loye Bolyard, BJ Ussery, Shaun Wilkie and Rick Scarlato, Jr.
The top four finishers, and a sizeable handful of others from the 2020 MD State Bar Table 10-Ball championships returned to compete in the 2021 event, held this past weekend (Nov. 28-29). Among those returning were defending champion Brandon Shuff, 2020 runner-up BJ Ussery, Rick Molineiro (who finished 3rd in 2020) and Shaun Wilkie (who finished 4th last year). Wilkie went undefeated to claim the 2021 title, downing BJ Ussery, who repeated as runner-up. Rick Molineiro finished in the first money round this year (13-16th), while Brandon Shuff had the misfortune of going two-and-out. The event drew 56 entrants to Brews & Cues on the Boulevard in Glen Burnie, MD.
Wilkie’s opponents were gaining on him, almost from the start. He opened with a 7-1 victory over Kevin Ping, but Joshua Mccauley scored three against him, while Kevin West and Joonick Jun, in succession, chalked up four each. This brought Wilkie into a winners’ side semifinal matchup against BJ Ussery, who, though he arrived at the match having allowed opponents two less racks than Wilkie (12-10), had numbers moving in the opposite direction. From a 7-5 start versus Russ Redhead, Ussery went on to give up three versus Kamrin Kohr, none at all against Tina Malm, and two against Joseph Wright, Jr., which brought him to the match versus Wilkie.
Thomas Haas worked his way through four opponents for a 28-15 aggregate score when he arrived at his winners’ side semifinal matchup against Steve Fleming. Fleming showed up to meet him, having allowed 17 racks to be chalked up against him.
Haas and Wilkie advanced to the hot seat match. In their first of two, Wilkie sent Ussery to the loss side 7-5, while Haas dispatched Fleming 7-3. Already assured a better finish than last year, Wilkie claimed the hot seat 7-3 over Haas and assured himself a position of either winner or runner-up.
On the loss side, Ussery drew Tommy Zippler, who’d been defeated by Haas in a winners’ side quarterfinal and gone on to defeat Kevin West 7-4 and Dylan Spohr 7-5. Fleming picked up Matt Krah, who’d been the first to defeat Brandon Shuff in the winners’ side second round and then, followed him over when Zippler defeated him 7-1. Krah was working on a four-match, loss-side streak that had recently eliminated Joonick Jun 7-5 and Joseph Wright, Jr. 7-3.
Ussery ended Zippler’s brief loss-side trip 7-3 and was joined in the quarterfinals by Krah, who limited Fleming’s loss-side matches to one, downing him by the same 7-3 score. Ussery then put a stop to Krah’s loss-side campaign 7-5 in those quarterfinals.
Ussery went on to limit Thomas Haas’ loss-side campaign to a single match as well, downing him in the semifinals 7-5. And then, in something of a stunning finish, Wilkie claimed the event title without giving up a single rack to Ussery in the finals.
Tour directors Loye Bolyard and Rick Scarlato, Jr. thanked the Mannings (Anthony and Stephanie) and their Brews & Cues staff for their hospitality, as well as Mezz Cues, Turtle Racks, AlleyKat Cue Sports, AZBilliards.com, Aramith Balls, Lucid Ballsports (Predator Arena Light), Simonis Cloth, TAP Chesapeake Bay Region & Safe Harbor Retirement Planners.
On The Hill Productions will hold the Maryland State 10-Ball Championships, scheduled for the weekend of Dec. 11-12, at 7 Billiards Shady Grove in Gaithersburg, MD.
