John Ortiz Takes Latest Two Stops on East Coast Pool Tour

The most recent stops of the East Coast Pool Tour were held on September 13th-14th and October 19th at U.S. 1 Billiards in West Haven, Connecticut.  The event in September was an All Class Nine-Ball Event, which as the title relays, all divisions of players in the area (A-B-C-D) were allowed to play.  The field brought in a strong group of players, all in total twenty-four which were there to take a shot at the top prize of $700.  John Ortiz became the man of the hour at that event, with an eventual win in the finals over Andrew Downs.  The placing/payouts ended as follows:

September 13th-14th All Class Nine-Ball Event:
1st John Ortiz $700
2nd Andrew Downs $420
3rd Ken Debroske $240
4th Jermey Sossei $120
5th/6th Bob Mendengeon/Dave Gavrish $65

The October 19th event was geared toward “B” level players, but skill levels “C” and “D”  were welcome also.  Thirteen players were in attendance including top names from the region such as last month's king of the hill John Ortiz, Dan Evans, Eljay Sande, Eric Tang and Tour Director Brent Boemmels.

The winner's side brackets eventually came down to the hot-seat match between Ortiz and Sande.  Ortiz made sure he controlled the set from the beginning with an early lead and an outcome of 7-4 in the end.  While on the one-loss side, Boemmels and Evans battled it out to see who would end up in the money rounds.  Evans took a commanding 3-0 lead immediately, but Boemmels jumped into action and brought the score back to a 3-3 tie.  But from there, Evans pretty much held the set and would go on to best his opponent 7-5 to move on and match up against Sande in the semis.

The Sande/Evans semi-final match proved to be a great match to watch.  The score flip-flopped back and forth the entire set.  Evans made a few mistakes initially with missed nine-ball combinations early in the set and it appeared as though they may have cost him the win because Sande came out on top by a mere 7-5 victory.

The final round was yet another close match between Sande and hot-seat winner.  Ortiz shot out in front of Sande but was unable to hold him off as the score finally topped out at 4-4.  When Ortiz was up 6-5, Sande had a shot at joining him on the hill due to a dry break by Ortiz but Sande ended up getting tough on the nine ball position after running down the rack. Safety play ensued thereafter, but Ortiz kept his eyes on the prize and snagged yet another win on the tour.

October 19th “B” Class Nine-Ball Event:
1st John Ortiz $350
2nd Eljay Sande $200
3rd Dan Evans $70

The tour has updated its website with the current schedule of events.  Visit the website at members.cox.net/ecpt/ or contact Sal Bev at (203) 410-3890/Brent Boemmels at (203) 525-9052, email ecpt@cox.net   The next stop to be held will be a “C-D” event at Bristol Billiards in Plantsville, Connecticut, located off of Rte. 322 on October 26, 2008.