Steve Thomas defeated Ben Sadowski twice on Saturday, October 3 to join the ranks of different individual winners on the Tri-State Tour. The $750-added, B-D handicapped event drew 36 entrants to Sandcastle Billiards in Edison, NJ.
Thomas and Sadowski met first in the battle for the hot seat. Thomas, after opening wins versus James DiGiosafatto, Phil Carr and Dave Fitzpatrick, sent Sandi Paterino west 6-3, as Sadowski was busy surviving a hill-hill struggle versus Robert Perkins. Thomas then gained the hot seat with a 7-5 win and waited for Sadowski to return.
On the one-loss side, up-and-coming women's professional Borana Andoni was embarked on a campaign that would get her into the semifinals against Sadowski. She got by James DeLillo and Fitzpatrick by identical 7-5 scores to meet Perkins. Leo Liu, who'd defeated Scott Simonetti 7-5 and Theo Burry 6-4, was waiting for Paterino. It was Andoni and Paterino advancing to the quarterfinals with identical 7-5 wins over Perkins and Paterino. Andoni advanced one more step with a 7-4 win over Paterino and then fell to Sadowski in the semifinals in the seventh of eight 7-5 wins among the event's final 12.
Thomas opened a slim two-rack lead in the finals before Sadowski got on the board. The two traded racks before Sadowski picked up two in a row to knot the score at 4-4. Thomas surged ahead by two, and though Sadowski would get back to within one at 6-5, Thomas closed it out with the event's eighth and final 7-5 win to take home the first place prize.
No doubting Thomas on Tri-State tour
October 5, 2009