The Pechauer New England 9-Ball Tour held their 2nd event of the new season at Country Club USA in Chelmsford MA with a packed field of 70 players including such notables as Walter Bryska, Tony Ruberto, Dave Fernandez, Rich Senna, Tom Mcgonagle, Alex Morin, Rich Minichello, Mike Minchello, Mike Dechaine, Chris Leal, Joey Dupuis, Mike Nicoloro and Luis Rios. This tournament was a special one for tour director Marc Dionne whose Father passed away the night before the event.
The match for the hot seat came down to Lee French and Tony Ruberto. Ruberto came out strong with an early 3-0 lead, but French came back and tied the match at 3-3. Ruberto made his way to the hill first at 6-4, but French again mounted a comeback and tied the match at 6-6. A scratch on the break by French in the case game left Ruberto a difficult table to maneuver through, but he handled it with no problem and moved on to the hot seat.
French ran into more bad luck on the one loss side as Dave Fernandez took complete control of their match and rode two 9-ball breaks to a quick 7-2 victory.
Both players in the finals agreed to cut the final match down to a race to 7 due to time constraints. Ruberto came out firing and won the first three game, but Fernandez won the next four to take the lead at 4-3. The players traded the next two games and then Fernandez snapped a 9-ball break for a 6-4 lead. Ruberto dug down and won the next two games to tie the match at hill-hill, but a scratch by him in the case game was all the opportunity Fernandez needed to run out the remaining balls for first place.
Tour director Marc Dionne commented after the tournament, "I would like to thank Country Club USA for letting me host such a great event and I know my Dad would have been proud of me for running such a nice event in his honor.".
The next Pechauer N.E. 9-Ball Tour stop will be on January 29th at Spot Shot Billiards in Portland Maine.
Complete Results:
1st Dave Fernandez $1,200 + $550 calcutta
2nd Tony Ruberto $600 + $300 calcutta
3rd Lee French $300 + $150 calcutta
4th Luis Rios $200
5th/6th Jay McCoy, Mike Dechaine $150
7th/8th Ray Mac, Mike Nicoloro $120
9th/12th Tom Mcgonagle, Philip Stevens, Rich Minichello, Rick Sleeper $60
