Blaze Tour Stop 12/6/09
The Blaze Tour Stop, made their first visit to Sandcastle Billiards in Edison NJ. Room owner and pool enthusiast "Sandman" welcomed 26 of the Northeast's best pool players to the one day Pro/Am event. The Blaze Tour is known for having the strongest one day field in the Northeast, but players didn't expect so many heavy hitters to be in attendance.
"Ginky" George Sansouci, Joey Testa, Shane Winters, Mike Miller, Matt Krah, John Alicia, Dave Grau, Randy Schwager, Shaun Wilkie, Dan Cintron, Joey Landi. and "Kid Delicous" Danny Basavich all came out to battle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Basavich,
The last Blaze stop at Sandcastle, Mike Sigel was dominant, and it was clear that several of the top up and coming players were hungry to stir up some buzz around their game.
To the delight of the knowledgeable NJ crowd, Kid Delicious came did not disappoint his fans through impressive play, but came short of cashing after losing a "Hill-Hill" set to Shaun Wilke.
Top regional player Mike Miller was in dead gear, as he defeated Erin McManus 7-2, Shaun Winters, 7-5, Ginky 7-5, John Alicea 7-6 lining up a Winners side "Hot Seat" match with Joey Landi.
On the bottom half of the Winners bracket, Joey Landi went through Duane Toney "Wu Tang" 7-6, Derek Schwager 7-3, Ben Sadowski 7-0 and Randy Schwager 7-2 on the bottom half of the winners side bracket.
Joey Landi was impressive in bouncing back to top form, after a long break from the game. Joey mentioned that he is playing well because of putting in a lot of hours on the table at Sandcastle, which is his home room.
In the match between Mike and Joey… Mike Miller jumped quickly out to a 5-2 lead, which proved to be too much for Joey to handle on this day knocking Joey out of the tournament 7-4.
On the One Loss Side you had impressive performances from a combination of players including John Alicea, Dave Grau, Danny Basavich, Randy Schwager and Shane Winters… but no player could constantly bring the heat like Shaun Wilke was bringing on this day.
Shaun edged Raj Vannala 7-6, Shaun had a tough well played battled with Dave Grau 7-3 before losing to top North East player Randy Schwager 7-5. and then Shaun shifted into a higher gear. Shaun Wilke defeated Shane Winters 7-2 and overcame an impressive performance against Kid Delicious Danny Basavich 7-6, then beating John Alicea 7-2 and Randy Schwager 7-3.
Now Shaun was lined up with Joey Landi, who at one time was consistently a threat to win on the Florida Pro Tour. It was clear that Shaun was hungry to make a statement at this event and payed near flawless to defeat Joey 7-3.
The Blaze Tour uses a true double elimination format, which meant that Shaun Wilkie had to defeat Mike Miller 2x, which he went on to do in two consecutive sets. The first set was a 7-6 nail biter, where Shaun clutched out a gritty run, and the second set Shaun's momentum and swagger was too much for Mike to fade on this day.
The Blaze Tour Staff would like to thank Sandcastle Billiards and it's Sponsors for their support.
The Tour's next stop will be at Skyline Billiards, in Brooklyn NY on the 20th of December.
Congratulations on a remarkable performance by "Get Some" Shaun Wilkie. Shaun Wilkie would like to thank his sponsor Lucasi Hybrid for equipment and on going support. I would also like to thank thank the players for coming out to play, and special thanks to Jerry Tarantola for covering the event
Final Results:
1st: $940 Shaun Wilke
2nd: $550 Mike Miller
3rd: $325 Joey Landi
4th: $200 Randy Schwager
5th: $130 George "Ginky" Sansouci
5th: $130 John Alicea
Picture winner Shaun Wilkie 2nd Mike Miller 3rd Joey Landi and Owner Ed "Sandman" Liddawi
