Ronnie Alcano, Les Duffy and Jeff DeLuna
Countrymen Jeffrey (The Bull) De Luna and Ronnie Alcano from the Philippines, fresh from their appearances at the first Doug Beasley Custom Cues Open 9-Ball in Raleigh, NC traveled from the Tar Heel State to the Sunshine State on the weekend of June 23-24 to compete in the 7th stop on the Sunshine State Pro Am Tour. They advanced through the field of 46, on-hand for the $500-added event at Boulevard Billiards in Ocala, FL and met twice; once in the hot seat and again, in the finals. Alcano took the first match, and De Luna won the second to claim the event title.
De Luna’s path to the final two matches went through a bye, and then, Don Kreischer, Joe Scarborough, and Gary Orefice to meet up, in a winners’ side semifinal, with Trenton White, a teenager who is currently 5th in the tour’s point standings and on his way to the Junior Nationals in New Orleans in July. Like De Luna, Alcano was awarded a bye in his opening round, and then went on to defeat Wayne Kelly, and Kody Kelly, to draw Les Duffy in the other winners’ side semifinal.
By identical 7-3 scores, De Luna and Alcano advanced to the hot seat match over White and Duffy. Alcano took the first of two against De Luna 7-5 and waited in the hot seat for his return from the semifinals.
On the loss side, Trenton White picked up Nathan Rose, who’d eliminated Jason Richko, double hill. Duffy drew Tommy Kennedy, who, after an opening round bye, had been sent to the loss side in his second round by Rose, and won three straight double hill victories (over Moe Fattah, Kreischer, and Thomas White) and a 5-3 victory over Orefice to draw Duffy.
Rose knocked out Trenton White 6-4, as Duffy got by Kennedy 5-3. Duffy and Rose locked up in a double hill quarterfinal that eventually sent Duffy to the semifinals against De Luna.
De Luna ended Duffy’s brief loss-side run 5-1 in their re-match semifinals and turned to his re-match against Alcano. De Luna completed his single match, loss-side run with a 9-5 victory over Alcano in the finals to claim the event title.
Tour directors Janene Phillips and Bobby Garza thanked the ownership and staff of Boulevard Billiards for their hospitality, describing their hosting of the event as “awesome” and looking forward to returning to the venue in 2019. They also thanked sponsors Play The Game Clothing Co., Jacksonville Roofing, USA, Kamui Tips and AZBilliards. The next stop on the Sunshine State Pro Am (Stop #8), scheduled for July 14-15, will be hosted Strokers in Palm Harbor, FL.
