Dennis Hatch Defends His Title at the 21st Annual Ocean State 9-ball Championships

By NYC Grind Contributor, Alison M. Fischer

The “Hatchetman” Dennis Hatch has done it again… The Joss Tour’s 21st Annual Ocean State 9-ball Championships was held on November 21-22 at Snookers Billiards, Bar & Grill in Providence, Rhode Island, where Hatch defended his 2008 Ocean State title.

Having recently been named the final player on Team USA for the 2009 Mosconi Cup, Dennis Hatch is doubtlessly getting in gear to compete at his highest level, making it no real surprise that he snapped off this event, which boasted 108 of the toughest players from around the Northeast.

2008 was Hatch’s first-ever Ocean State win, and this back-to-back win adds his name to a short list of notable repeat champions such as two-time winner Tony Robles, three-time winners “Ginky” George SanSouci and Joss Tour Director Mike Zuglan.

A number of New York’s top players were in battle at Snookers, including Sean “Alaska” Morgan, George SanSouci, Joey Korsiak, Jorge Rodriguez, John Alicea, and Mike Yednak.  However, it was Long Island’s rising star Justin “The Rogue Rhino” Muller who finished a notch above, tied for 9th place–with wins over Joe Tucker (9-7), Dave Fernandez (9-6), and Ivaylo Petrov (9-8) before falling to Ray MacNamara (9-3).

In this event, Hatch’s winner’s side run lasted until the Final Four, where he was ejected to the one-loss side by fellow Buffalo native Dave Grau by a 9-6 score.  Grau is currently ranked #3 on the Joss Tour, and although he has been knocking on the door of a Joss win in the past two years, Hatch has proved to be his roadblock to victory.

In the other Final Four match, Nelson Oliveira soundly defeated #2-ranked Shane Winters, 9-4.  However, Oliveira did not stack up against Dave Grau in the match for the hot seat, where Grau threw him down 9-1.

Waiting on the one-loss side for Dennis Hatch was Tom McGonagle, who he defeated by a 2-game margin, 9-7.  However, he would not let his following opponents have as much as a chance, defeating Shane Winters 9-2 in the quarterfinal, then shut out Nelson Oliveira 9-0 to move onto the finals against undefeated Dave Grau.

The finals would be a true double elimination, and would give Dave Grau yet another chance to defeat Dennis Hatch in the final match.  Back in March ‘09, Hatch and Grau met in the finals, shortly after Hatch had given Grau a few lessons.  And, in the first set of the finals, Dave Grau defeated Dennis, but the Hatchetman would not let him get away in the second set, closing out the win.

But, Hatch would dominate Grau in a 9-1 dousing in the first set, which meant that in those 30 games against Winters, Oliveira, and Grau, he only lost 3.  This forced a second final set, where Grau did not go down as easily, but Dennis would closed the match at 9-5 to become the Ocean State Champion for the second consecutive time.

Congratulations to Dennis Hatch on this impressive win, in which he spent a total of 29 hours shooting pool over those two days.  Kudos also to Dave Grau for his consistently high performance level in the Joss.  Good luck to Dennis Hatch as he joins team USA in Las Vegas for the Mosconi Cup on December 10-13.

Payout:

1st: $3,200 - Dennis Hatch
2nd: $2,200 - Dave Grau
3rd: $1,600 - Nelson Oliviera
4th: $1,200 - Shane Winters
5th/6th: $900 - Tom McGonagle, Ray MacNamara, Kevin Guimond, Dan Heidrich
9th-12th: $500 - Justin Muller, Scott Tollefson, Chance Chin, Bucky Souvanthong
13th-16th:  $300 - John Ricciardelli, Al Lapena, Rick Sleeper, Joe Tucker
17th-24th: $150 - Ivaylo Petrov, Pete Bowman, Cleiton Rocha, Sean Morgan, Tom Seminaro, Jeremy Sossei, Chris Leal, Chris Orem

Next up on the Joss is the Turning Stone Classic XIV, held from December 17-20 at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, NY, set to feature world-class players like Johnny Archer, Mika Immonen, Ralf Souquet, and Thorsten Hohmann, among many others.  You won’t want to miss it!