Pete Tascarella Jr. Wins the first ever Predator 9-Ball Tour A-B-C-D event

The Predator 9-ball tour held it's first A-B-C-D tournament this past weekend at Raxx Pool Room Bar and Grill in West Hempstead, NY.  Forty-seven of the region's top amateur players came out to win the top prize of $800 for the $1,000 added event.  The event's structure required A and B players to compete against one another on the top half of the chart while the C/D players battled it out at the bottom only to meet one another in the quarter finals going forward.   

Leading the A/B players was tournament veteran Pete Tascarella Jr., son of famous cue maker Pete Tascarella, Sr., who had the unfortunate luck of drawing his father first round.  After a nail-biting hill-hill match, junior would defeat his dad and go on to defeat Ariel Rivera 7-4, Chris Laz 7-3, Thomas Wan 7-4, and Eric Toledo 7-6.

The bottom of the chart had it's share of close calls amongst the C/D players.  After narrowly defeating John MacArthur 7-6, William Finnegan went on to defeat Emily Harrison 7-2, Mike Schloven 7-1 and Marco Dy 7-2.  This set up the hot seat match between Finnegan and Tascarella, Jr. for Sunday.

Day two action on the left side saw Thomas Wan defeat Mark Pantovic 7-3 before losing to Eric Toledo 7-4 leaving Wan to settle for second place in the B class player of the year.  Eric Toledo met up with Marco Dy next and fought hard to beat the dangerous C player 7-5 to face Finnegan in the semi-finals, who lost a tough match to Tascarella for the hot seat 7-4. The underdog, Finnegan pulled out all the stops to close the door on Toledo's tournament, defeating him 7-5 and leaving him to settle for 3rd place.  

In the finals, Finnegan showed a lot of heart but simply couldn't keep up with the more experienced Tascarella and fell short 7-3.  Congratulations to Pete Tascarella Jr. for winning the first ever Predator 9-ball Tour A-B-C-D event.  

The last stop of the season will be the tour's finale, the first annual Empire State 9-ball Championship, which will take place October 11th & 12th at Raxx Pool Room Bar and Grill.  This is a $3,000 added event and will host the award ceremony for all the players of the year for the Predator 9-ball tour.  Many pros will be in attendance warming up for the following weekend's U.S. Open.