In the end, it was a three-match series between Joe Muse and Gareth Steele which determined the winner of the New England 9-Ball Series B-D season finale on the weekend of June 5-6. Muse won two of the three, including a double hill win in the second set of a true double elimination final, and took home the first place prize. The $1,500-added, B-D handicapped event drew 49 players to Buster's Billiards in Somersworth, NH.
The first of their three matches was a battle for the hot seat. From among the winners' side final four, Muse had defeated Joe Brumbaugh 5-2, as Steele was busy sending Randy Marcott west 6-2. Muse got into the hot seat with the first of two double hill wins that would earn him the event victory.
Brumbaugh and Marcot, on the one-loss side, would face Stan Rupard and Joe Kalanaues. Rupard had defeated Jake Longley and Nick Kafalas, both 5-1,to draw Brumbaugh, who had sent him to the one-loss side earlier. Kalanaues, after a 4-1 victory over James Corelli and a double hill win over Austin Roberts, faced Marcot. Rupard chalked up his third straight 5-1 victory, dropping Brumbaugh into the tie for fifth place. Marcot joined Brumbaugh in that fifth place tie on the heels of a 5-3 defeat at the hands of Kalanaues.
In the quartertfinal match that followed, Rupard defeated Kalanaues 6-4. Steele put an end to Rupard's impressive bid from the one-loss side with a 5-2 victory that set up the true double elimination final. Steele came out of the gate quickly, establishing a lead and winning the opening set against Muse 5-1. Muse fought back in the second set, battling to double hill and then winning the deciding match to take first place in the B-D handicapped leg of the tour's season finale.
On July 11, the New England 9-Ball Series will wrap things up with an All-Class season finale, to be held at the same location - Buster's Billiard's, in Somersworth, NH.
