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Abraham Keeps Pennsylvania Championship at Home By Tori Hilty, InsidePOOL staff  Lucky Break Billiards in Indiana, PA, held the Pennsylvania State 9-Ball Championships the weekend of June 12-13, 2004. Room owner Ernie Lorelli welcomed a field of 46 players, including the likes of Josh Brothers, Shaun Wilke, and cue maker Paul Mottey, but it was Pennsylvania native Eddie Abraham that rose above the rest to take top honors at this $4,000 added event.
The room was brightly lit and had plenty of seating for the players and spectators alike. The tournament was played out on 16 of the 17 Brunswick tables the room had. In addition, it offered refreshments along the lines of soda, pizza, nachos, and burgers. The first matches began around 2 p.m. on Saturday, and day one saw some surprises. Jayme Goodwin was making a good showing despite the fact that he arrived not intending to play in the tournament, and Eddie Abraham was sent to the one-loss side when Pooky Rasmeloungon reached a final 9-8 decision in a drawn-out hill-hill match. Tensions were high as the final four began to battle it out on day two starting around 6 p.m. Jeremy Seaman arrived in the quarters where he faced Abraham after a series of convincing wins. Abraham shot out to a 4-0 lead but Seaman got on the board by sinking the 9 on his break in rack five but trailed until he tied the match 5-5. Abraham trailed only once in the game when the 6-5 score favored Seaman. From there, Abraham tied it at 6-6 and then took advantage of several errors by Seaman to take the match with a final 9-6 decision. The hot seat match was a battle between Lee Holt and long-time player Dave Daya. Holt took two racks before Daya could take advantage of a foul to get on the board. The two traded the lead until it was knotted at 4. Holt allowed Daya only one more rack before he stormed to the hot seat by defeating Daya 9-5. Daya immediately went to the semifinals where Abraham was waiting for him. Abraham was the first to score and remained in the lead until the match was tied at the hill. It was Daya's break in the final rack, and he sunk two balls but had no shot on the 1. He attempted to shoot it in the corner but missed, and Abraham came to the table and ran out to win 9-8 and to secure his spot in the finals. The final match differed from the double-elimination format as it was one race to thirteen. Abraham won the lag and proceeded to break and run out the first rack. From that point, the safety battles began. Each rack was hard earned until rack five when Holt took advantage of an empty break by Abraham to win with a 1-9 combo, making the score 3-2, Abraham. Holt took one more rack to tie it 3-3, but Abraham took the next five racks to take the lead at 8-3. The next four racks saw two wins for each player, and then they traded racks until Abraham reached the hill with 12-7. Holt broke on rack 20, sunk a ball, but left himself a tough shot on the 1. He attempted a bank shot but knocked the 5 ball in the corner instead. Abraham passed his shot, leaving Holt to figure out how to sink the 1. After careful study, Holt attempted again but missed. Abraham came to the table and sunk the 1 ball only to allow Holt back to the table by missing the 2. Holt missed the two, and Abraham was back to the table and attempted a 2-3 combo but missed. Holt jumped the 6 in attempt to make the 2 but missed and left a perfect set up for a 2-9 combo. Abraham took advantage of it and made the shot to take the win with a final decision of 13-7. Results: 1st Eddie Abraham 2nd Lee Holt 3rd Dave Daya 4th Jeremy Seaman 5th Brandon Shuff, Pooky Rasmeloungon 7th Don Steele, Matt Chatterbuck 9th Sean Graham, Bill Kirshner, Jayme Goodwin, Bill Walk Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news in the sport of billiards and pool.
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