Pijus Labutis
A year ago, it was Pijus Labutis dropping back to back matches in the finals of the 2024 Derby City Classic 9-Ball Division, but what a difference a year makes. This year, Labutis started off his Derby City Classic with an undefeated run through the Diamond Bigfoot 10-Ball Championship, capping that event off with a statement victory against Joshua Filler in the finals.
Labutis started the final day of the event with a 10-5 win over Gerson Martinez. Martinez’s quick pace of play keeps making him fans at Derby City, but Labutis comfortably dispatched the young Peruvian player.
Meanwhile, Filler was advancing to his second straight Bigfoot final with a 10-6 win over Roberto Gomez. Filler had won the Bigfoot event and that victory launched him into his Master of the Table title win last year.
The finals went back and forth with neither player able to build a lead, but when digging into the quality of play, it was Labutis who was the better player by far. Based on that level of play, Labutis should have been able to build a good sized lead, but that was not the case.
As the match neared its ending, fans were wondering if Filler’s experience in the finals of major events would be the deciding factor but instead, it was Labutis who dug down to win the last three racks (breaking and running the final rack) for a 10-7 win and his first major Derby City Classic title.
At the beginning of the day on Tuesday, the Banks division was down to seven players and Fedor Gorst was the only player with a buyback. Gorst was scheduled to play Van Boening, with Mickey Krause set to play Tony Chohan and Billy Thorpe set to play Shannon Murphy. Skyler Woodward had the bye. Those matches are scheduled for 6:00 PM EST tonight.
The One Pocket division is into round three with 169 players left in the event.
Follow all of the action online at http://results.derbycityclassic.com, and watch the PPV action from the 10 footer today at http://www.digitalpool.net/diamond/
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