Manalo Takes Two
Florida Pro Tour / Spring Hill, FL
by Rick Davis
The Seminole Florida Pro Tour swung into Capone’s in Spring Hill, FL, for their fourth event of the season June 2-3. Fighting through the 78-player field and surviving a late defeat, Marlon Manalo came out on top to claim the title, his second of the season.
Keeping alive on the winners’ side tour, Manalo’s countryman Al Lapena was on fire. Starting by defeating recent EnjoyPool.com 9-Ball Championship winner Dennis Orcollo 7-4, Lapena drilled a series of opponents before falling hard to Tommy Kennedy. Kennedy had taken a similar path, defeating Warren Kiamco 7-4 along the way, then besting Lapena to reach the top eight. The other half of the chart had tour powerhouses Steve Moore and Manalo tearing things up, destined to meet. Both Moore and Manalo had fairly easy runs to the top with few top players to grind through. Once together, their match inched towards double-hill until finally Moore came out on top.
On the one-loss side Orcollo offered an amazing comeback, taking nine matches to reach the top eight and drilling most of his opposition. The remainder of the one-loss side changed ownership nearly every round, and in the end it was Kiamco 8-6 over Donnie Mills to take the final top eight seat.
In the hot seat match Moore met Kennedy and was upset 8-5 as Kennedy claimed the king of the hill. The carnage erupted then as Manalo eliminated Orcollo 8-3, and Kiamco drilled Lapena 8-1. Manalo continued to make short work of his opponents, knocking out Kiamco 8-3 in the quarterfinals and Moore 8-2 in the semifinals. With a single extended race to 9 waiting for Kennedy and Manalo, the score ground down to double-hill until the final rack fell in favor of Manalo, giving him another Seminole Florida Tour title.
Results:
1st Marlon Manalo
2nd Tommy Kennedy
3rd Steve Moore
4th Warren Kiamco
5th Al Lapena
Dennis Orcollo
7th Tony Ruberto
Donnie Mills
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