Joey Cicero and Jeremy Sossei
It’s sort of a February tradition at Sharpshooters Billiards in Amsterdam, NY. The Joss NE 9-Ball Tour comes to visit, and Jeremy Sossei ends up standing in the winner’s circle. For the fifth straight year (and sixth time in seven years), Jeremy Sossei finished in first place on February 16th and 17th. Even with his winning streak there, it wasn’t easy this year.
Sossei remained undefeated all day Saturday and started Sunday with a 9-3 win over Rick Kravetz. While Sossei was getting that win, Joey Cicero was sending BCA Hall of Famer Pat Fleming to the one loss side 9-6. Cicero then sent Sossei to join Fleming on the left side of the board as he took the hot-seat match 9-7.
On the one loss side, Jorge Teixeira was on a roll. After losing to Ron Casanzio on Saturday morning, Teixeira had won nine straight matches culminating in a 7-3 win over Bruce Nagle for 4th place. Teixeira gave Sossei almost all he could handle but ended up dropping the semi-final match 7-5.
That win left Sossei with the task of beating Cicero twice in a row, which he did in two hard-fought matches. Sossei scored a 9-6 win in the first set, followed by a 7-5 win in the second.
Sunday’s second chance tournament saw Ben Werblow dominate the field of nineteen players. Werblow went undefeated with wins over Bob Merkert, Greg Bombard, Nate Marshall and then Demian Provost for the hot-seat. In those four matches, Werblow lost a total of one game (to Bombard). Bruce Carroll eliminated Provost 3-0 in the semi-final match but was only able to manage one rack against Werblow in the finals.
