Ochoa Double-Dips Clark in Fast Eddie’s Billiard Finals

Ochoa Double-Dips Clark in Fast Eddie’s Billiard Finals
Fast Eddie’s Olhausen 9-Ball Tour / Austin, TX
by Skip Maloney
Sylver Ochoa came through the one-loss side to win Fast Eddie’s Olhausen 9-Ball Tour stop in Austin, TX, the weekend of July 12-13. The $1,750-added event, hosted by Fast Eddie’s Billiards, drew 115 participants.
In the winners’ side final four, Robert Clark and David Henson defeated Mario Juarez and Al Mason, respectively, by identical 9-3 scores to face each other in the hot seat match. Clark defeated Henson 9-5 and waited for his opponent in the finals.
Ochoa, in the meantime, joined Charlie Bryant, James Davis Jr., and Brandon Shuff moving into the one-loss side’s final four. Ochoa sent Bryant home with a 7-5 victory, as Davis was doing likewise to Shuff 7-2. Ochoa picked up Mason, over from the one-loss side and defeated him 7-5, while Davis, Jr., and Juarez tangled up in what was, at the time, the only hill-hill match among the final 12. Juarez advanced into the quarterfinals against Ochoa, where he was defeated handily, 9-3.
Ochoa was getting stronger as he faced Henson in the semifinals, dropping him 7-1, and heading into the finals against the undefeated Clark. In the true double elimination match that followed, Sylver needed to defeat Clark twice.
The two struggled back and forth to a 7-7 tie in the opening set, with Clark scratching in the next game. Ochoa took the ball in hand, finished the rack to reach the hill first, and then ran the rack for the first-set win. Some of Ochoa’s earlier strength started to assert itself in the early going of the second set, in which he jumped out to a commanding 6-0 lead. Clark, though, rallied in a series of racks that saw him, at one point, jump two balls in a row to continue play. The two battled back and forth to hill-hill before an early kick by Clark in the final game sunk the 1 ball. The cue ball kept traveling, however, and after kissing two other balls, dropped into a hole. Ochoa, with ball in hand, finished the rack for the two-set victory.
Results:
1st Sylver Ochoa
2nd Robert Clark
3rd David Henson
4th Mario Juarez
5th Al Mason
James Davis Jr.
7th Charlie Bryant
Brandon Shuff
9th Danny Almaraz
Eric Aicinena
Jui Lung Chen
Tom Mooney