BJ Ussery chalks up gritty, undefeated performance to take 15th Annual Bob Stocks Memorial

Chris Wilburn and BJ Ussery

Fracasso-Verner wins seven on the loss side to challenge Ussery a second time

Of the seven matches BJ Ussery played to win the 15^th Annual Bob Stocks Memorial this past weekend (April 22-23), four of them went double hill. One of those double-hill matches was against one of the ‘hottest’ players playing the Pro circuit right now – Fedor Gorst, who happened to be the Bob Stocks Memorial’s defending champion. As it turned out, both finalists, Ussery and Lukas Fracasso-Verner defeated Gorst and Fracasso-Verner saved Ussery the possible anguish of facing him a second time, in the finals. The $10,000-added event drew 60 entrants to First Break Sports Bar in Sterling, VA.

Once Ussery had sent Fracasso-Verner to the loss side in the opening round, he ran into his first double-hill challenge, against Santiago Silvera. He prevailed in that match, and talk about ‘frying pan into fire, ran into his second, against Gorst. Fargo rate calculations gave him a 15.9% chance of winning that match and he defied the odds to advance to the single-elimination phase of the event. 

Also advancing to single elimination from the winners’ side of the double-elimination bracket were Thomas Haas, Shane Wolford, Tyler Styer, Oscar Dominguez, Josh Roberts, Billy Thorpe and Greg Hogue. From the loss side, Fracasso-Verner had advanced by shutting out Christopher Pyle, eliminating junior competitor Precilia Kinsley 7-2, and then, surviving two straight double-hill challenges from Jeremy Seaman and Henry Cha. Joining Fracasso-Verner in advancing to single-elimination from the loss side were Shaun Wilkie, Tommy Tokoph, Fedor Gorst, Martin Daigle, Donny Mills, Hunter Lombardo and Grai “Pooky” Rasmechai.

Ussery opened his single-elimination phase against Hunter Lombardo, downing him 9-3, before running into his second double-hill match against Haas. He survived that to advance to the semifinals against former junior competitor Shane Wolford, who’d battled Jayson Shaw to double hill in the single elimination phase of the previous weeks’ Pro Players Championship at the Super Billiards Expo. 

At the lower end of the narrowing single-elimination bracket, Fracasso-Verner and Gorst were moving toward a confrontation in the semifinals; Fracasso-Verner downing Greg Hogue 9-7 and Martin Daigle 9-3 to get there, as Gorst was busy shutting out Josh Roberts and eliminating Donny Mills 9-4. 

Fracasso-Verner finished Gorst’s Sunday 11-7 as Wolford was giving Ussery the same kind of double-hill ‘fit’ he’d given Shaw a week earlier. Ussery hung in there to win it and turned to face Fracasso-Verner in the finals.

The two competitors in the finals were looking forward, focused on the match ahead of them, but both were, as well, likely to have been reflecting backwards; Fracasso-Verner remembering how far he’d gone in the Pro Players Championship a week earlier and his more recent and likely satisfying defeat of Gorst in the semifinals, while Ussery was likely to have been thinking of his much-longer history at the tables and how far he’d come, as well as his own defeat of Gorst, which put him into the single-elimination phase of the event he was hoping that he was about to win.

He did. And it almost went double hill. In the end, though, Ussery edged out in front to claim the 15^th Annual Bob Stocks Memorial Tournament 13-11 over Fracasso-Verner.

Tour director Chris Wilburn thanked Anthony Luong of First Break, Upstate Al and Zach Goldsmith for the streaming services, and the players and event staff that made it all possible.

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