Dennis Hatch
Dennis Hatch chalked up his seventh win in 10 attempts on the 16th stop of the 2009-2010 Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour on the weekend of April 17-18. Only Shane Winters, Stevie Moore and Rodney Morris have kept Hatch out of the winning circle when he's competed during this Joss Northeast season. Winters and Moore did so with victories in the finals of the event. Morris did it by dropping him into third place at the 14th annual Turning Stone Classic in December, thus preventing a Hatch/Archer final in that event, which Archer went on to win.
In a new format, featuring a mixture of professional and non-professional competitors paying different fees to enter, the $1,500-added event, hosted by Golden Cue Billiards Lounge in Albany, NY, drew 43 total entrants; 35 ‘pros' and 8 ‘non-pros.' The tour stop also featured a $500-added ‘second chance' tournament on Sunday, for players eliminated from the main event. A total of 25 players opted to compete for $1,000 in total purse money in the second chance event, which was won Hal Hughes.
Hatch gave up only one of out of every four racks he played in the final three matches; a 27-9 aggregate score that began with 9-2 win over Paul Rozonewski among the winners' side final four. Matt Tetreault, in the meantime, was sending Chris Orme west by the same score. Hatch sent Tetreault to the semifinals with a 9-3 win that left him in the hot seat.
After eliminating Keith Lauer 9-1 and Bucky Souvanthong 9-4, it was Joss Northeast tournament director Mike Zuglan, laying in wait for Orme on the one-loss side. Rozonewski found himself facing Dave Fernandez, who'd defeated Hal Hughes (eventual winner of the second chance event) 9-4 and Brent Boemmels (co-tour director of the East Coast Pool Tour) 9-3 to reach him. Zuglan and Orme battled to double hill before Orme prevailed to move into the quarterfinals. Fernandez joined him with a 9-6 win over Rozonewski.
Fernandez made short work of Orme in those quarterfinals, defeating him 9-1, before moving into a ‘nail biting,' double hill match versus Tetreault in the semifinals. Tetrault hung on to win for a second chance at Hatch in the true double elimination finals. Tetrault won almost as many games in what would prove to be the only set necessary as Hatch's previous two opponents combined, but it wasn't enough. Hatch took an early four game lead and though Tetreault chipped away at it, Hatch eventually extended it by one and finished things at 9-4.
In the second chance tournament ruled by races to three, Hal Hughes, who finished in the 9-12 slot of the main event, was in the hot seat when he faced John Rich in a true double elimination final. Rich shut Hughes out in the opening set , but Hughes battled to double hill in the second set, and prevailed to win.
