Like father, like son, as they say, and a week after Derek Schwager picked up an event victory on the Mezz Pro Am Tour, his father, Randy Schwager, stepped up to win the September 17-18 stop on the Poison Planet Pool Tour. The elder Schwager had to get by Josh Brothers twice to secure the event victory; once among the winners' side final four and again, in the finals, but only after Brothers had won the opening set of those finals. The $1,000-added event drew 23 entrants to Drexeline Billiards in Drexel Hill, PA.
Once Schwager had sent Brothers west with a 9-5 victory, and Jay Brotherton had done likewise to A.J. Fitzgerald 9-4, Schwager sent Brotherton to the semifinals with a 9-3 win. Schwager sat in the hot seat and waited for Brothers to come back.
Brothers moved into the west bracket to face Lou Patrikios, who'd defeated Joe Hong 7-5 and Tim Murray, double hill, to reach him. Fitzgerald picked up Michael Wong (second to the younger Schwager on the Mezz Pro Am Tour a week earlier), who'd defeated Bob Burt 7-5 and Eddie Abraham 7-4. The tie for fifth place was shared by Patrikios and Fitzgerald, who recorded only four racks between them in the matches that sent Brothers (7-1) and Wong (7-3) to the quarterfinals.
Brothers then recorded two straight shutouts; against Wong in those quarterfinals, and then, versus Brotherton in the semifinals. He moved on to take the opening set of the true double elimination final against Schwager 9-3. Schwager, though, put up a fight in the second set, one that went double hill before he finished it to take home the first place prize.
