Glass City Open Continues

Glass City Open ContinuesBy Tom Martin, InsidePOOL StaffDay 2 of the Glass City Open is in the books. Most of the seeded players have gone forward as anticipated in the second and third rounds, and Nevel, Archer and Owen, who were sent to the “B”-side early, have seemed to regroup and won matches Thursday, keeping their hopes alive. Pam Treadway, one of only two female competitors in this year’s event, also stayed alive with a west-side bracket win over English player Dean Goddard 10-7. Ronnie “Everything’s Funny When You’re Winning Big Money” Wiseman had little to smile about, being the first marquee player ousted from the event after consecutive losses to Corey Deuel 10-4 Thursday and Ben Zummer 10-7 Wednesday night.
There are few “plugs” in this event, and as such there was quite a bit of excitement Thursday. In the last round of the night, Grand Rapids, MI, native Jason Kirkwood handed Hall of Famer Nick Varner an astounding 10-1 beating. In the last match to finish, Danny “Kid Delicious” Basavich staved off Canadian challenger Jeff White, winning a nailbiting hill-hill match. Basavich, who is currently the subject of a feature in Sports Illustrated, came back from three games down despite the added pressure of having SI cameras and reporters looking on. The seats were packed and the crowd was pumped during the evening rounds, as local favorite and room owner Steve McAninch defeated Nick Mannino by a similar score. A few tables away, 17-year-old Danny Smith faced off in another winners’ bracket match with the red-hot “Rocket” Rodney Morris. Backed by a partisan crowd of family and friends, the young gladiator battled toe-to-toe with Morris for the first half of the match, pouncing on any mistakes made by his opponent. With the score tied at 6-6, however, the “Rocket” took off and closed out the match 10-7. Detroit ace Brandon Ashcraft, who finished fifth last year and reportedly has the best combined finish record for this event (since resurrected), will be next to take on Strickland, who he defeated in last year’s event 10-8. Keith McCready earned a shaky win (“it wasn’t pretty but still a W”) over recent returnee Mark Jarvis, in a match where neither player made a ball on the break seven out of the first nine games. McCready will now face Buddy Hall. Other winners’ bracket matches scheduled for Friday are Deuel vs. Petroni, Matlock vs. Basavich, Brown vs. Miller, and Putnam vs. Jones. Visit InsidePOOL for the latest news from the Glass City Open.

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