Michael Wong and Derek Schwager
As if going undefeated wasn't enough, Derek Schwager finished a September 11th stop on the Mezz Pro-Am Tour by shutting out his finals opponent, Michael Wong, who'd moved into the west bracket at the end of the first round. Wong had just wrapped up his seventh straight on the loss side, and had no idea that he'd already won his last game of pool. The $1,000-added event drew 28 entrants to Mainline Billiards in Frazer, PA.
Meanwhile, Megan Smith, who's won three Planet Pool Tour stops this year, is one-and-one on the JPNEWT and finished 25th at the WPBA US Open in Tulsa this June, is getting into the act with the . . .gentlemen. She's cruising along fine until she runs into Schwager among the winners' side final four. Lou Petrikios and Brad Shearer square off nearby. Schwager gets into the hot seat match, and allows Smith only a single rack doing it. Patrikios gets by Shearer 7-5, but can only chalk up three racks against Schwager, who then sits in the hot seat, waiting for Wong.
Smith moves to the loss-side and runs right into him; Wong, who's already knocked down four, including Mike Donato 7-4, and one of the event 'headliners'- Matt Krah 7-5. Shearer's on the loss-side, facing Josh Brothers, another 'headliner,' who shut Wong out in the opening round. Wong then shuts out Smith, who leaves in a tie for fifth place, having won just a single game of her final 15. Brothers downs Shearer 7-5 and the quarterfinal rematch is on.
Wong exacts his revenge against Brothers with a 7-5 victory, and ends his seven-game, loss-side streak with a 7-3 win over Patrikios in the semifinals. Wong joins an elite club of pool players by beginning and ending a tournament run on the wrong end of a shutout and chalking up a shutout of his own along the way. Schwager took him down in the finals to claim the event title.
