by Jerry Stuckart   On Monday, December 22nd, Warren Ellerman lost his battle with Lung Cancer. And on Saturday, December 27th, Kitty's in Phoenix converted it's Annual Scotch Tournament into a Benefit tournament for the Ellerman Memorial to help cover the expenses of providing a proper burial service.

21 Scotch teams showed up to compete in the tournament, along with many others who stopped in to show support and donate a little to the fund.  It's really great to see a community of pool players come together on so many fronts to show there support for one of their own.  Pool players in general don't have the best reputation, but this just goes to show that that rep needs to be reversed.

After many great battles, Jason Flora (7) and Jim Rabatin (9) got to the hot seat match and faces off against another strong Scotch Team that has been dominating all over the valley, Paul Vasi (8) and Sophia Morquecho (6).  Jason/Jim excaped by Jerry Stuckart and Jim Money in a hill-hill battle to get to this match.  Where as Paul/Sophia took down Steve Henderson and his partner.

Over on the 1 lose side the team of Aaron Purdy and his partner Bob were busy sending team after team home in their fight to win the event.  Leading 5 - 1 over Kitty and Claudia, they had chances to put it away, but failed to come through over and over.  Kitty and Claudia clawed back to push the match to hill-hill but couldn't get a roll in the final game and they finished in 7th/8th.

Next up for Aaron and Bob was a hungry Jim and Jerry team.  J/J jumped out to an early lead at 2 - 0, and then pushed it to 4 - 2 in the even race to 8 games.  In game 7, Jerry over ran position on a 3 rail shot and Jim made the next shot but got hooked on the 4 ball.  After a good hit, Bob stepped to the table and pocketed the ball and hooked Aaron.  But being the shot make he is, he fired at the ball making it across side and pushing the 9 ball in the corner pocket.  At 4 - 3, Bob Broke and pocketed his 2nd 9-ball break of the match.  At 4 - 4, Jim and Jerry's luck ran out as they only managed 1 more game in taking 5th place.

Over in the Hot Seat Match, Jason and Jim continued their dominating play as they ran out to a commanding 4 - 0 lead.  There play ruffled Sophia and Paul which allowed Jim/Jason get to the hill at 7 - 1.  But the match was not over yet as Paul and Sophia buckled down and won the next 2 games.  At 7 - 3 Jim was able to come with a great shot to set up his partner to run out the last rack and take the hot seat.

Then after a short break, Sophia and Paul made a short stop on the 1 lose side before being eliminated in 3rd place.  Aaron and Bob continued to grind through rack after rack and put up a big lead.  They were able to hold on and take the loser side of the board with 6 straight wins to setup the finals.  Sophia and Paul took home $170 for 3rd.

Information on the finals along with additional pictures still to come....  Stay tuned.....