According to our records, neither Justin Bertrand nor Ryan Lineham had ever won a major event before they met in the hot seat and finals of Stop #6 on the New England 9-Ball Series. And they represented the opposite ends of a FargoRate spectrum; Bertrand with a lower 482 and Lineham with the higher 651. This gave Bertrand ‘five on the wire’ in their two races to 8 in the hot seat and finals. Bertrand is likely to be edging up the FargoRate scale following his victory in both of those matches, in which he claimed his first (recorded) event victory. The $500-added event, held on Sunday, Nov. 4, drew 56 entrants to Bo’s Billiards in Warwick, RI.
Following a lower-bracket, opening round bye and victories over Charlie Matarazzo and Felix Batista and Tyler Boudreau, Bertrand moved into a winners’ side semifinal against Jason D’Angelo. Lineham, in the meantime, had gotten by Russell Belisle, Josh Christian, Rick Faggioli and Rick Gatta to meet up with Kevin Bauccio in the other winners’ side semifinal.
In a straight-up race to 5, Bertrand downed D’Angelo 5-3. Lineham downed Bauccio 6-3 (Bauccio racing to 5). In their first of two, battling for the hot seat, Lineham managed to erase Bertrand’s ‘five on the wire’ handicap deficit, but not before Bertrand chalked up three racks to win the battle 3-5.
On the loss side, D’Angelo picked up Jason Parker, who’d lost his opening match and was in the midst of a seven-match, loss-side winning streak that would take him as far as the semifinals. He’d most recently shut out Boudreau and downed Cho Loy Yen 3-1 (Yen racing to 5) to meet D’Angelo. Bauccio drew Mark Young, who’d eliminated Gatta 5-3 and TJ Perrino 5-4.
In a straight-up race to 5, Bauccio defeated Young 5-1. He was joined in the quarterfinals by Parker, who’d picked up a forfeit win over D’Angelo. Parker advanced one more step, downing Bauccio 3-5 in those quarterfinals (Bauccio racing to 8). His loss side streak was stopped by Lineham in the semifinals, though not before Parker had forced a double hill deciding match at 8-2.
Lineham came out on the losing end of his second straight double hill match, against Bertrand in the finals. He chalked up seven of the eight racks he needed, but Bertrand chalked up his three to claim the event title.
Tour director Marc Dionne thanked the ownership and staff at Bo’s Billiards, as well as sponsors Predator Cues, USAPL New England, FargoRate, Bert Kinister, AZBilliards, Inside English, Professor Q-Ball’s National Pool & 3-Cushion News, Delta 13 Racks, MJS Construction, Bob Campbell, Bourgeois Farms and OTLVISE Billiard Mechanics of America. The next stop on the New England 9-Ball Series (#7), scheduled for the weekend of Nov. 10-11, will be a $1,000-added event to be hosted by Spin City Billiards & Café in Woodside, NY.
