Josh Brothers prevails through “The Gauntlet” undefeated

This past Monday night, “The Gauntlet” at Sandcastle Billiards continued to draw new blood to the arena as players from all over the New Jersey area came to compete in the toughest weekly pool room event around. US Open top-ten finisher, Jim Conn came back to battle once again after taking 2nd place in the debut evening of the event but then not cashing in last week's Gauntlet. Many local tournament players and pool supporters such as Wali Muhammad, Ron Lubas, Mark Dunay, Ben Sadowski and Steve Thomas cued up but it was Josh Brothers who came out to Sandcastle to take his first shot at the title of Gauntlet Champion that became the man to beat.

The first round of the event drew Gauntlet Co-Director, Ryan Wong to play against house regular Pat Ferragine. After taking that match 5-2, Ryan Wong moved on to defeat Jim Conn and then Steve Thomas to get to the hot seat. At the same time, Mike Delvecchio was cruising through his bracket with a first round bye and a victory over Paul Wortman. Mike then matched up against powerhouse player, Josh Brothers in a tight set only to be sent to the other side of the chart with a 5-3 loss.  This 3rd round match sent Brothers to the hot seat match to face off with Ryan Wong.

On the one-loss side of the bracket, Albert Lopez proved himself as he fought for survival and defeated Mark Dunay, Ben Sadowski, and Jim Conn. Albert's journey came to an unfortunate ending at 5th/6th with a tough roll in a hill-hill battle with Mike Delvecchio. Ron Lubas was showing his resilience with wins over Sandie Patarino, Pat Ferragine and Steve Thomas. This brought Ron to battle it out with Delvecchio to get into the money. Another hill-hill battle allowed Mike Delvecchio to squeak out the victory that ended the night for Ron Lubas at 4th place. Mike would then wait for the loser of the hot seat match and play for third.

Back at the hot seat match, Josh Brothers and Ryan Wong exchanged racks back and forth until it was 3-3. A missed 8 ball cost Ryan rack #4 allowing Josh to get to the hill. Josh would then win the next rack and that set 5-3 to send Ryan over to the one-loss side to play Delvecchio.

The match at 3rd place to get to the finals was no contest. Ryan had everything going his way as Mike struggled against the rolls. After 4 racks, the match was over and Ryan was headed back over to face Josh once again.

The finals did not go to a second set this week as Josh Brothers dominated the set entirely as he won the first 3 racks. Ryan Wong had just one opportunity to take advantage of which he did to get on the board in rack 4. The score was now 3-1 in Josh's favor as he won the fifth and sixth racks to make it 5-1 and remain undefeated in this week's competition and become the new reigning champion of “The Gauntlet”.

Sandcastle Billiards thanks all who came out to participate and support the weekly event.

Top Finishers:

1st Place - $400.00 – Josh Brothers
2nd Place - $250.00 – Ryan Wong
3rd Place - $100.00 – Mike Delvecchio

Tournament Participants; Jim Conn, Josh Brothers, Manny Casqueira, Ben Sadowski, Steve Thomas, Mark Dunay, Pat Ferragine, Ron Lubas, Wali Muhammad, Albert Lopez, Ryan Wong, Sandie Patarino, Paul Wortman and Mike Delvecchio (14 participants)

Thank you all for your participation and good luck next week!