Brothers Makes a Bang on Blaze Tour
Blaze 9-Ball Tour / Drexel Hill, PA
by Jose Burgos
The Blaze 9-Ball Tour made its way to Drexeline Billiards in Drexel Hill, PA, June 14, where a strong field of 38 players came out to play. Among them were Shaun Wilkie, Matt Krah, Joey Testa, Scott Tollefson, and Caroline Pao, but Josh Brothers walked away with the first-place prize from this $1,000-added event.
Brothers went undefeated through the event. To reach the finals, he scored victories over Shaun Dobson 7-2, Adam Kielar 7-4, Raphael Saldana 7-3, and Wilkie 7-5. Leading the bottom half of the bracket was Krah with wins over Hendrick Drost 7-3, Derek Schwager 7-3, Keith Christman 7-2, and Testa 7-6.
The hot seat match was a one-way affair, with Brothers easily winning 7-3 to advance to the finals unchecked, while Krah was sent to the one-loss side. There he found Wilkie in the semifinals. Another lopsided match, this one saw Wilkie going ahead 7-2 to reach the final match. Wilkie had to best Brothers twice in the true double-elimination event, but the day belonged to Brothers, as he handily defeated Wilkie 7-3 to win the match and event.
Josh Bothers, Bob Maidhoff, Shaun Wilkie
Results:
1st Josh Brothers $1,150
2nd Shaun Wilkie $650
3rd Matt Krah $370
4th Joey Testa $220
5th Raphael Saldana $120
Keith Christman
7th Rob Pole $70
Abdellatif Chamseddine