Day one is in the books at the Joss NE 9-Ball's Turning Stone Classic XXIV, and the day was bookended by two surprising upsets.
The first upset of the day took place in round one, where a Darren Appleton pinched nerve in the neck teamed up with strong play from Joss Tour regular Jason Michas to send Appleton to the one loss side in his first match. Michas won the match 9-5 and Appleton said he was contemplating pulling out of the tournament to seek medical help on the neck. Fortunately for the fans in attendance, Appleton stuck it out and has already won his first match of the day on day two.
Other action in the first round saw Robb Saez with a dominating 9-0 win over Rich Grannis and Mosconi Cup hopeful Scott Frost scoring a lopsided 9-1 win over Ernesto Dominguez. While Ernesto was being sent to the one loss side, son Oscar was being sent to join him, after a hill-hill loss to Michael Yednak.
Round two on Thursday didn't hold any major upsets, but one match of note saw local Junior Champion Jake Miosi take a brutal loss. Miosi led Ray Lee 4-0 when the wheels fell off. Nine games later, Miosi had lost the match 9-4.
The second major upset of the day occured in the final round of play, as Canadian veteran "Machine Gun" Luc Salvas shot down Mike Dechaine on the streaming table. Dechaine trailed in the match early and Salvas pulled away to get to the hill at 8-6. Salvas had a runnable table, but missed a ball and Dechaine pounced on the opportunity. Dechaine would tie the match at 8-8, but missed a 4-ball while running the final table and Salvas cleaned up the table for the 9-8 win. Dechaine will begin the long journey through the one loss side with a match against Tony Antone Friday afternoon.
AzBilliards is providing complete coverage of this event with live streaming (courtesy of Upstate Al and AzBTV), real time scoring and online brackets. You can find all of the coverage on our live scoring page at http://www.azbilliards.com/tours_and_events/1-joss-northeast-9-ball-tour/6623-turning-stone-casino-classic-xxiv/live/
