Hatch Hangs on for Win
Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour / Albany, NY
by Skip Maloney
In front of a capacity crowd, Dennis “The Hatchet Man” Hatch struggled a bit in a winners’-side final match against Mike Zuglan but hung on to win and then went on to defeat Dan Heidrich in the $3,000-added Joss Northeast 9-Ball Tour stop on the weekend of April 19-20. The event drew 49 players, who played around on-going reconstruction work at the 50-year-old Golden Cue Billiards facility in Albany, NY.
On the one-loss side of the bracket Sunday, Heidrich, having been defeated by Zuglan on the winners’ side, went on to oust Ed Abraham 9-4 in the quarterfinal match. In the hot seat match, Hatch jumped out to a 4-0 lead before Zuglan responded, eventually knotting the score at 6 and again at 7. Zuglan failed to make a ball on the subsequent break and Hatch capitalized, winning the final two racks.
Heidrich had no trouble eliminating an admittedly tired Zugman in the semifinals 9-1 and moved on to the finals against the undefeated Hatch. The final match was an early, back-and-forth struggle that lasted until Hatch moved ahead 5-4. He allowed Heidrich only one other game victory before taking home the first-place prize.
Results:
1st Dennis Hatch
2nd Dan Heidrich
3rd Mike Zugman
4th Ed Abraham
5th Bucky Souvanthong
Tom D’Alfonso
7th Karen Corr
Frank Bess
9th Kevin Ketz
Damon Sobers
Tim Parisian
Greg Antonakos
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