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Parica Takes Down 14th Annual Jay Swanson Memorial
Jay Swanson Memorial / Hollywood, CA

by Lea Andrews

Jose “Amang” Parica showed the crowd at Hollywood Billiards in Hollywood, CA, that he was the man to beat as he shot his way into the hot seat of the 14th Annual Jay Swanson Memorial 9-Ball Tournament, and when he met up with Sal Butera in the extended-race finals, he showed them that no man was up to the task. Parica topped the 192-entrant field that gathered February 13-14 for the $4,000-added event, which featured an impressive $15,520 prize purse.

Parica’s victims on his run to the hot seat didn’t include Butera, who’d been edged out by Wayne Pullen 8-7 in one of the later rounds. Pullen went on to do the same to Butch Carba before trouncing Marcus Rodriguez 8-1 to face Parica in the hot seat match. Parica, who was coming off wins over Louis Ulrich 8-4, Greg Harada 8-4, and Marshall Jung 8-7, took care of Pullen easily 8-1.

Pullen moved over to his spot in the semis, where he was awaiting the winner the quarterfinal match-up of Butera—who’d ousted Brian Parks 7-2, last year’s runner-up Oscar Dominguez 7-4, and Jung 7-5—and Rodriguez, who’d just edged out Harada 7-6. Since both Butera and Rodriguez were victims of Pullen, both were vying for the chance at the rematch—and, of course, a crack at Parica in the finals—but Butera was the one who earned it, moving on to the ultimate revenge over Pullen: a shutout.

But toppling the undefeated Parica was quite a different story. Though Butera started off ahead in the single race to 13, getting up 3-1, Parica fought back, pushing his way to get ahead 4-3 and 8-5. Butera wasn’t giving up, though, and he kept at it, finally managing to regain the lead 11-10 and 12-11. While Parica pushed it to hill-hill, it looked to be Butera’s tournament in the final rack until a bobbled 6 ball gave the Filipino another chance. But with no real way to get on the 7 ball, he had to rely on his safety game, which served him well. Butera managed to hit the 7, but he left Parica a shot, which “Amang” took willingly to run out for game, set, match, and tournament.

Parica showed the crowd at Hollywood Billiards in Hollywood, CA, that he was the man to beat as he shot his way into the hot seat of the 14th Annual Jay Swanson Memorial 9-Ball Tournament, and when he met up with Sal Butera in the extended-race finals, he showed them that no man was up to the task.