Rodney Morris (Photo courtesy of Rick Schmitz)
Day two of the US Open 10-Ball Championship got underway with 24 players still hoping to collect the $10,000 first place prize money. Eight of the top ten American players on the Mosconi Cup points list were also still in contention to earn more points in their trek to make Team USA.
The hot-seat match came down to BCA Hall of Fame inductee, Rodney Morris, vs future Hall of Fame inductee Shane Van Boening. Shane controlled this match early and led by as many as four racks at 5-1. A turning point in the match came in rack 10, with Van Boening ahead 6-3. Van Boening was hooked on the 1-ball (with the 2-ball back up table) after the break. He pushed to a jump shot and Morris gave the shot back. Van Boening contacted the 1-ball, but didn’t make it, and Morris ran out that rack. A dry break by Van Boening in rack 14 allowed Morris to knot the score at 7-7, and another dry break in rack 16 allowed Morris to take the hill at 9-7. Morris ended things with a break and run in rack 17 to earn the hot-seat.
Morris admitted that the shot on the 1-ball in rack 10 was big. “Shane pushed out to that long jump shot. He jumps with a full cue and generates a lot of torque that allows him to draw his cue ball back, and he likes that sort of shot. I don’t have that shot in my repertoire. I passed it back to him to make him earn it though. If he makes it and draws back for the two, then he earned it. “ said Morris. Morris also credited the dry breaks by Van Boening late in the match. “He doesn’t break dry twice in a row, ever. “ Morris said.
On the one loss side, Oscar Dominguez beat Mike Dechaine, Alex Pagulayan and Jason Klatt in back-to-back-to-back hill-hill matches. He got to relax a little after that with a 10-4 win over John Schmidt, but he was right back to his hill-hill habits in a loss to Skyler Woodward that closed out the night.
Day one’s hero, Billy Thorpe, turned in a great performance on day two with wins over Vilmos Foldes and Shane McMinn, before dropping his last match to Rodrigo “Edgie” Geronimo.
At the end of the day, the field has been narrowed to just five players. Rodrigo Geronimo will face John Morra, to earn a match against Woodward on the one loss side. The winner of that match will face Van Boening and that winner will play Morris in the finals.
Predator is the official cue of the US Open 10-Ball Championship. They are joined by Kamui (the official tip), Cyclop (the official balls), Omega Billiards (the official online store) and Diamond (the official table) as major sponsors of this event.
