Petrillo Brings Home Holiday Billiards Win

Tri-State Tour / East Rutherford, NJ

by Skip Maloney

Dennis Petrillo shouldered a defeat in the hot seat match and came back to win the Tri-State Tour stop December 27. Petrillo and hot seat/finalist opponent Ron Mason were among 27 entrants who signed on for the $500-added, B-D handicapped tournament hosted by Castle Billiards in East Rutherford, NJ.

From among the winners’ side final four, Petrillo and Mason advanced to face each other in the hot seat match after Petrillo had sent Alex Borukhovich west 6-4 and Mason had bested John Trobiano 7-5. Strong play from Mason put him in the hot seat with a 6-2 win, as Petrillo headed for the semifinals.

Pete Brennan, in the meantime, was working his way back to the same semifinal from the one-loss side of the bracket, defeating three opponents—Jan Aleria, George Osipovich, and Borukhovich—in hill-hill battles for a quarterfinal match-up against Chris Taormina, who’d ousted Trobiano 7-3. Brennan advanced to the semifinals with a 7-4 victory over Taormina but faced a determined Petrillo, who dropped him into third place and turned to a rematch against Mason.

A steady hand kept Petrillo on track as Mason was forced to deal with a series of bad rolls in the finals. Petrillo had been sent to the semifinals with a four-rack defeat and returned to win 8-3 in the rematch.

Dennis Petrillo shouldered a defeat in the hot seat match and came back to win the Tri-State Tour stop.

Results:
1st Dennis Petrillo $500
2nd Ron Mason $250
3rd Pete Brennan $150
4th Chris Taormina $100
5th John Trobiano $75
Alex Borukhovich
7th Dave Fitzpatrick
George Osipovich
9th Emily Duddy
Anne Flores
Michael Seas
Jan Aleria