Wending his way south, Korsiak goes undefeated at MD State 9-Ball Championships

Loye Bolyard, Nathan Childress, Joey Korsiak and Rick Scarlato

Though known to travel wherever necessary to compete, Joey Korsiak, whose residence is listed as Ronkonkoma, NY (about 50 miles east of Manhattan on Long Island) is known primarily for haunting pool tables in the Northeast corridor. In what was his best year at the tables (2005), when he cracked the top 100 on our AZB Money Leaderboard, five of the 10 events in which he cashed that year were on the NY-based Joss Tour and two others were in Pennsylvania (SBE Players Championship; 5^th) and Rhode Island (16^th Ocean State 9-Ball Championship; 17^th). The other three were Derby City’s 9-Ball Division (Louisville, KY; 38th), the BCA Open (Las Vegas; 13^th) and the US Open 9-Ball Championships (Virginia Beach, VA; 33^rd). 

He began his 2021 campaign with a single event in Connecticut in February and then has embarked on a southern journey, which took him to Maryland earlier this month (May 1-2), where he competed at the Dynaspheres Cup 10-Ball Championships and finished 3^rd behind Van Boening and Raphael Dabreo. Then, onward, south, to Gastonia, NC (about 30 miles west of Charlotte), where he competed in the 1^st Annual Ron Park Memorial Tournament, won by Jesus Atencio, in which he finished in the tie for 9^th. This past weekend (May 15-16), he headed back north to Maryland, where he went undefeated to chalk up his first victory of the year at the 3^rd Annual Maryland State 9-Ball Championships. The event, which would have been the ‘4^th Annual,’ but did not occur during the year-that-wasn’t, was held under the auspices of On the Hill Productions and drew 90 entrants to Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD.

Along the way, Korsiak defeated the event’s 2019 champion, Brandon Shuff, and later, much later, in the finals, had to contend with one of the country’s hot ‘young guns,’ two-time Billiard Education Foundation champion, Nathan Childress (‘15/’16, 14 & under boys). As might have been expected, these MD State championships were packed with some of the top competitors in the Mid-Atlantic region, including, though not limited to Shuff, Shaun Wilkie, Paul Oh, Steve Fleming, Brett Stottlemeyer, Matt Krah and the Mastermaker brothers, Danny and Joey. We’d be remiss if we didn’t include Loye Bolyard and Rick Scarlato, Jr. from On the Hill Productions in that crowd (Done!).

Korsiak’s path went through Harshit Kedia, Dylan Spohr, and Robert Calton before he ran into the defending champion, Brandon Shuff. Shuff chalked up just one less rack against him than all three of his previous opponents combined (6-5), but Korsiak prevailed and advanced to a winners’ side semifinal against Mike Saleh. Jose Mendez, in the meantime, who’d defeated Daniel Sharlow, James Ward, and Danny Mastermaker, drew Shaun Wilkie in a winners’ side quarterfinal. A 7-4 win set Mendez up to meet Nathan Childress in the other winners’ side semifinal.

Korsiak got into the hot seat match on the heels of a 7-2 victory over Saleh and was joined by Mendez, who’d sent Childress to the loss side 7-5. The hot seat match was Mendez’ second double hill challenge and Korsiak’s first. Korsiak won it and sat in the hot seat, awaiting what turned out to be the return of Childress.

On the loss side, Saleh picked up Jason Kochenour, who was working on a six-match, loss-side winning streak that had recently eliminated Jimmy Acosta 7-3 and narrowly, the aforementioned Rick Scarlato, Jr. Childress drew Danny Mastermaker, who’d defeated Christopher Funk 7-5 and then downed another, ‘young gun,’ more recently out of his teens than Childress, Lukas Fracasso-Verner 7-3.

Saleh and Kochenour locked up in a double hill battle that eventually sent Saleh to the quarterfinals. Childress and Mastermaker almost had themselves a double hill match, but Childress pulled out ahead at the end and won it by two 7-5. 

Childress downed Saleh 7-4 to earn his rematch against Mendez in what turned out to be a double hill semifinal. Childress closed it out for a shot at Korsiak in the hot seat. Korsiak shut Childress down early and claimed the event title with a 7-2 win in those finals.

On the Hill Productions, in the persons of Rick Scarlato, Jr. and Loye Bolyard thanked the ownership and staff at Champion Billiards, as well as sponsors AlleyKat Cue Sports, AZBilliards, Aramith Balls, Lucid Ballsports (Predator Arena Light), Mezz Cues, Turtle Racks, Simonis Cloth, TAP Chesapeake Bay Region and Safe Harbor Investments. The next event on the On the Hill Productions’ schedule will be the 2021 9-Ball Summer Slam, to be held on the weekend of June 12-13 and hosted by Brews & Cues on the Boulevard in Glen Burnie, MD.