Frost Nips Ochoa for Derby One Pocket Title
As evening fell on Elizabeth, IN at the Derby City Classic there was talk of an upcoming storm and how cold the air felt outside. According to the National Weather Service, the storm is scheduled to hit Friday, but nobody watching the final day of action cared too much about the cold weather approaching. They seemed to fixated on Frost, Scott Frost. Scott Frost, Francisco Bustamante and Sylver Ochoa survived a field of 287 hopefuls to gain the spotlight and one pocket infamy.
The semifinal match between Francisco Bustamante and Sylver Ochoa proved to be a replay of the classic “youth versus experience” match. This match saw the youthful Ochoa prevail over the experienced Bustamante not by just ball making and shear firepower, but skill and knowledge as well.
In the finals, Scott “The Freezer” Frost met Ochoa for what promised to be another memorable duel. In a moment of levity, Accu-Stats commentator Jimmy Mataya stated, “Am I the only one that finds it ironic that we just got told how cold it was outside from a guy named Frost?” As the finals got kicked off, it was Frost that thawed out the crowd with his play by winning the first game within only a few shots. Ochoa answered the call with a quick win of his own to knot the match at 1-1.
After getting second place last year, Frost was determined to win the Derby City Classic One Pcoket event this year.
The third game proved to be just a electric with Frost taking advantage of an Ochoa mistake and running the score to 2-1 in favor of Frost. That would be the end of the fast action. In game 4, Ochoa and Frost made a combined effort to move the remining ten balls to the non-business end of the table, all in one corner, thus creating what is known as “the Wedge” to one pocket players and fans. After what seemed like 30 shots per player, Ochoa saw an opening and tied the set at 2-2.
In the final game, Ochoa broke and almost scratched, leaving Frost nearly corner-hooked. Frost made a fantastic recovery to get out of the break but quickly fell behind 4 to -1 in ball count. Ochoa’s luck didn’t stop there. As Frost kept grinding out shot after shot to get back into the match, Ochoa “shot up in the air” at a bank and left what was surely to be the match balls only to have the balls come back together in a manner that gave Ochoa the reprieve that he needed. The match looked like they were about to get even more exciting when Ochoa shot a ball at his hole and accidentally made Frost’s game and match ball.
Early tallies of the all-around points standings show defending champion John Brumback in the lead with 136 points. In a close second at 116 points is the legendary Efren Reyes.
One Pocket Results:
1st Scott Frost $12,000
2nd Sylver Ochoa $6,000
3rd Francisco Bustamante $2,500
4-5 Corey Deuel, Nick Vita $1,800
6-8th Shannon Daulton, Rafael Martinez, Santos Sambajon, Jr.
9-12th Jesse Bowman, Danny Harriman, Joshua Oneal, Alex Pagulayan
13-19th Mark Haddad, Shane McMinn, Sam Monday, Jose Parica, John Schmidt, Adam Smith, Charles Williams
