Shaun Wilkie picked up his second straight 2014 win on the Action Pool Tour, with a come-from-the-loss side performance on the weekend of March 8-9. Sent to the losers' bracket in the second round of play by Mike Hagood, Wilkie won seven on the loss side and came back to defeat Hagood in the finals. The Bar Box Bash at Clubhouse Billiards in Lynchburg, VA drew 32 entrants.
With Wilkie out of the way, at least temporarily, Hagood moved on to survive a double hill match versus Doug Carter, and then, in a winners' side semifinal, shut out James Bilderback. In the hot seat match, Hagood faced Jeremy Perkins, who'd just sent Steve Fleming west 6-4. Hagood and Perkins battled to double hill, before Hagood prevailed to sit in the hot seat, waiting on the fateful return of Wilkie.
Through seven, race-to-5 matches and 43 games on the loss side, Wilkie gave up a total of only eight racks. He gave up one each to his first and second loss-side opponents (Neel Samanta and Jason Trigo) before allowing Collin Hall to chalk up three against him. He then shut out two in a row; Jason Clay and then, coming over from the winners' side semifinal, James Bilderback.
Steve Fleming, in the meantime, drew Matthew Siple, who'd gotten by Doug Carter 5-2 and Raymond Walters 5-4. Like Wilkie had done with Bilderback, Fleming shut out Siple. Wilkie then eliminated Fleming 5-2 in the quarterfinals, and gave up only one rack defeating Perkins in the semifinals. Wilkie had earned his re-match against Hagood in the finals.
When they'd met in the second round, Hagood had prevailed 6-4, thus chalking up more racks against Wilkie than any other single opponent all weekend and more than Wilkie's first five loss-side opponents combined. He wasn't as fortunate the second time around. Wilkie came out fast in the finals, chalking up the last of six matches in which he'd given up a rack or less, and claiming the event title 8-1.
