Earl Strickland (Erwin Dionisio)
Earl Strickland proved that he has more than enough firepower to compete with the top players in the game, with his 9-5 win over Shane Van Boening on the streaming table Saturday night at the Turning Stone Classic XXXII in Verona, NY.
The crowd was anticipating a battle, but they might not have been ready for the intensity and focus that Strickland brought to the match. Strickland took an early 5-0 lead, and the players exchanged multiple table runs, capitalizing on any opportunity that the other player allowed them. Strickland’s last obstacle before the hot-seat match will be Thorsten Hohmann, who has been (as he usually does) quietly winning matches. Hohmann already has wins over Billy Thorpe and Shaun Wilkie in this event, and a win over Strickland would leave him facing either Jayson Shaw or Brandon Shuff for the hot-seat.
Meanwhile, on the one loss side, Thorpe will face Frankie Hernandez. Hernandez has been away from the big stage for a while, but his stroke appears to still be the same. He lost a third round match to Shaw hill-hill, but has already won five straight matches on the left side of the board, including wins over Donnie Mills, Qais Kolee and Loree Jon Hasson. The other match on the one loss side will see Van Boening face Rafael Dabreo. Van Boening came back from his loss to Strickland with a 9-4 win over Len Gianfrate, but Dabreo has been having a great tournament with wins over Danny Hewitt and Wilkie to his credit.
All of the action gets underway at 11:00 Eastern Time and we have complete coverage of the event with Upstate Al providing a free stream, while we provide online brackets and real time scoring for the event.
