Ferrell Takes Seminole Billiards Tour Opener

Ferrell Takes Seminole Billiards Tour Opener
by Rick Davis
The 2008 season of the Seminole Pro Tour kicked off over the March 7-9 weekend at Strokers Billiards in Palm Harbor, FL, where a 64-player field matched up for the lion’s share of the $8,000 added prize fund. After three solid days of play in the 10-ball, double-elimination format it was Sparky Ferrell who came through seven matches undefeated to claim the season’s first honors.
As usual, the Seminole Pro Tour, formally known as the Florida Pro Tour, drew in an incredibly stacked field of top competitors. On the winners’ side “Rocket” Rodney Morris was an early favorite as he breezed through his first three opponents 7-1, then drilled Monica Webb 7-2, and then nearly shut out Jason Miller 8-1 to reach the hot seat match without breaking a sweat. Nearby, tour veterans Adam Wheeler and Dave Grossman matched up where Grossman edged out the win 7-5. Cleaning up perhaps the roughest portion of the winners’ side, Ferrell defeated Steve Moore 7-6, Corey Deuel 7-5, and Ronnie Wiseman 7-2 before dropping the axe on Grossman 8-1. That set up the hot seat match, in which Ferrell was able to keep control and ward off Morris with an 8-6 win to own the winners’ side.
Late on the one-loss side there was a WPBA matchup as Helena Thornfeldt faced Webb and defeated her 8-5 and then went on to eliminate Grossman double-hill. At the same time Wiseman was making a smooth comeback by ousting Wheeler 8-4 and Miller 8-5 before he was shut down by Thornfeldt 8-7 in the quarterfinals. Although Thornfeldt looked good in the semifinals, Morris’ fire was nowhere near out, and he knocked out Thornfeldt 8-3 to earn a final crack at Ferrell.
With the finals set, a single race to 9 separated Morris and Ferrell, who totally dominated the event. Neither player could keep much of an edge as the match got rolling until Ferrell made a final surge in the end and came up a 9-6 win over Morris to take the top spot.

Open Results:

1st
Sparky Ferrell

2nd
Rodney Morris

3rd
Helena Thornfeldt

4th
Ronnie Wiseman

5-6th
Jason Miller

Dave Grossman

7-8th
Adam Wheeler

Monica Webb

9-12th
Tony Crosby

Hunter Lombardo

James Roberts

Jose Del Rio

13-16th
Steve Moore

John DiToro

Raul Alvarez

Justin Hall