Ron 'Julio' Cosanzio held on to win the Joss NE 9-Ball Tour event at Classic Billiards in Rochester, NY by the slimmest of margins.
Cosanzio, a local favorite, cruised to the hot-seat undefeated. He lead his match Sunday with tour director Mike Zuglan 7-0 on his way to the a 9-2 win. The match for the hot-seat was closer, as Cosanzio and Bob Chaperon were tied 6-6 before Cosanzio won the last three games for the 9-6 victory.
After Chaperon fell to Zuglan on the one-loss side, Zuglan set out on his mission to defeat Cosanzio twice in the finals. The score in the first set was 9-6 Zuglan, which forced another set. Cosanzio looked to be in good shape as he lead 8-4, but Zuglan put on one final charge and closed the gap to tie the score at 8-8 and bring the tournament down to one game.
Zuglan came up dry on the break in the last rack, leaving Cosanzio a tough bank on the one-ball. Cosanzio banked the one-ball in and left himself position on a tough 2-9 combo to end the match. As the 9-ball slowly found it's way to the pocket, Cosanzio celebrated the victory.
Cosanzio collected $1300 for first, while Zuglan settled for $900 in second place prize money. Chaperon and Ed Vasquez filled out the top four spots.
The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour will be at Americana Billiards in Garden City, NY on December 13th-14th for their next event.
Complete Payouts:
1st Ron Cosanzio $1300
2nd Mike Zuglan $900
3rd Bob Chaperon $675
4th Ed Vasquez $475
5th/6th Mike Davis, Ted Guerrieri $275
7th/8th Jose Mendez, Vanavong Khattignavong $130
