Heidrich Hangs on to Win

Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour / Parsippany, NJ

by Skip Maloney

Earlier in the day, Heidrich knocked Jesse Ramirez to the one-loss side of the bracket as Kielar was doing the same to Jonathan Smith. The last two winners then squared off in the hot seat match, battling back and forth to a 9-7 win for Heidrich.

On the one-loss side, Bucky Souvanthong dropped Jason Michas into the seventh-place slot, as Carmen Lombardo, in a 9-7, three-hour marathon, did the same to Bobby Blackmore. In a series of tightly contested games and matches leading up to the quarterfinals, Smith, fresh from the winners’ side, defeated Souvanthong, and Carmen Lombardo got by Jesse Ramirez. Smith then knocked Lombardo into fourth place with a 9-6 win.

With visions of the 9-7, back-and-forth struggle that had knocked him onto the west side in his mind, Kielar wasted little time dispatching Smith into third place. He jumped out to a 7-0 lead before trading a couple of games and closing it out 9-2.

At the beginning of the true double-elimination match-up versus Heidrich, it looked as though Kielar was going to build on the momentum he’d established in his semifinal match against Smith. He won that first set handily 9-3 and stood poised to avenge his earlier defeat in the hot seat match. But Heidrich turned the tables rapidly, capitalizing on a few mistakes, running five racks in the middle of the contest and closing it out at 9-4 for the victory.

Results:
1st Dan Heidrich
2nd Adam Kielar
3rd Jonathan Smith
4th Carmen Lombardo
5th Bucky Souvanthong
Jesse Ramirez
7th Jason Michas
Bobby Blackmore