Favorites Clash as the Field Tightens at Turning Stone Classic

by Rick Davis

Friday night at the Turning Stone Classic X proved to be do or die for many of the top pros, and the field is rapidly dwindling.  The event, which is taking place at the Turning Stone Hotel and Casino in Verona, NY, today whittled down to its final eight players, who will return for the final day of play where everyone’s eyes will be on the $8,000 top prize from the $25,000-added event.

As day two ended and day three got into gear, few favorites were safe from the terror. Robb Saez defeated Dennis Hatch 9-6, while Louis Rios defeated Louis Ulrich 9-7. In that same round Canadian Jason Klatt sent Thorsten Hohmann west after a 9-5 thumping. From there action continued on the winners’ side as Tony Chohan defeated Tony Robles 9-4, while Johnny Archer defeated Edwin Montal by the same margin.  On the one-loss side Hunter Lombardo survived a close call against Rodolfo Luat when Luat was up 8-5 in the race to 9. Lombardo managed to scrape back to within striking distance and finishing with a 1-9 combo to tie the score at double-hill, then broke and ran the final rack to claim victory. Luat was the first casualty from the top-tier players.

Closing out the early carnage another trio of top pros found themselves on the wrong end of the table. Dan Doerner defeated Steve Moore 9-7, Ray McNamara defeated Mika Immonen 9-5, and Jonathan Smith defeated Mike Davis double-hill.

Fast forward to Saturday’s evening action as most of the day lost the excess baggage on the one-loss side. The ladies were the first to be ousted as Ewa Laurance was eliminated by Holdin Chin 9-4, then Chin sent Liz Ford to follow after their 9-2 match. Val Finnie and Julie Kelly were knocked out in that same round, and then two rounds later Karen Corr was iced by Tom McGonagle 9-7. McGonagle, a three-time New England champion from the early 1990s, had a great event and after giving walking papers to Corr, he eliminated Hohmann 9-4 before getting iced himself by Immonen 9-5.

On the winners’ side Chohan fought defeated Saez 9-5 to a spot in the final eight. Archer took a cake walk to the final day of play as he drilled Mike Wallace 9-1 to ensure his return. Jeremy Sossei also survived on the winners’ side and will face Ronnie Wiseman, who just slipped past Klatt double-hill in the winners’ side final round.

From there it was a quick jump on the one-loss side to determine the quartet that would return. Ulrich survived the night by ousting Saez 9-5 and will face Immonen in the final eight, while Hatch will play Moore, who eliminated Klatt 9-6 to reach the final day.

Going into the final day, these are the matchups:

Winners’ Side:
Chohan versus Archer
Sossei versus Wiseman

One-Loss Side:
Ulrich versus Immonen
Hatch versus Moore

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