Mitch Ellerman is State 1 Pocket Champion
By Jerry Stuckart: On August 22nd-23rd, 2009, the Desert Classic Tour held the 2nd of it's 3 State Championship events of the season. This time around the game was 1 pocket. This was also the 7th stop out of 9 stops on this years tour, held at Kolby's Korner Pocket Billiards in Tempe, AZ.
36 players from all over the state and surrounding areas came out for a chance to capture a State Championship. It was no surprise that Scott "The Freezer" Frost was the favorite going in. He had just finished runner-up to John Schmidt at the Derby City earlier this year.
Just like in any game the favorite doesn't always mean they are going to come through with the win. Especially with many other tough 1-pocket players in the field. Mitch Ellerman, Gus Briseno, Preacher Ronn Rutan, Mike Pankoff, Pete Lhotka, George Teyechea, Angel Martinez, Bernie Pettipiece, Tres Kane and many more all were playing some strong 1 pocket this weekend.
Mitch Ellerman and Scott Frost headed on a collision course on one side of the bracket, where Mike Pankoff and Gus Briseno headed on a similiar path. In a game known for extreme safety play, you would hardly have known it watching Mitch against Scott. He banked in every ball imaginable regardless of how tough to take a commanding 2 - 0 lead in the race to 3. Scott was able to get a game back on his break, but Mitch outran him again in the last game to send Scott to the 1-loss side.
Mike Pankoff picked his way through his match getting out early and forcing Gus
to come with some shots. When they didn't all fall, Mike closed the door and
got to the Hot-Seat match.
8 players got into the money stages on Sunday. Mitch Ellerman vs George Teyechea,
Mike Pankoff vs Gus Briseno on the winners side of the board, Ronn Rutan vs Bernie
Pettipiece, Scott Frost vs Angel Martinez on the 1-loss side. Mitch, Mike,
Ronn and Scott all won their matches which setup some interesting matches.
Scott vs Gus and Ronn vs George. Scott won the first game, and then frustrated
Gus in rack 2 to take the 2 - 0 lead. Gus gave up as he broke the balls hard
in game 3 and sat back and watched Scott run 8 - 0 to advance. Ronn was up
2 games to 1 on George and shot an extremely difficult shot that would either win
or lose him the game. Fortunately for him it split the pocket and bumped a
ball allowing him to run the last 3 balls and take the match.
In the Hot-Seat match, each player needed 2 balls. Mitch left Mike a tough
shot and he drilled it with position to win 8 - 6. The two traded the next
2 racks to push the score to 2 - 1 Mike. In another tough rack, players traded
balls back and forth until Mike needed 1 and Mitch needed the rest. Mitch
played a 2 way shot, missing the ball, but instead of the cueball going down table
and not leaving him an out, it found the point of the sidepocket and stayed on the
same side of the table. Mike took the hotseat with one final shot and would
await his opponent. Scott made quick work of Ronn in the 4th place game 3
- 0, granting Ronn $250 for his efforts.
Scott and Mitch would meet up once again to make it to the finals. This time Scott won the first game. In rack 2, Mitch got up 7 - 4 with a great 2 ball bank and then traded a few shots before making a great back cut bank on the 8 to tie it up.
Scott won the 3rd game to get to the hill first. Mitch broke the next rack
and picked a few early balls off before opening the rack and running out to 7 balls
to -1. Scott got to 7 to 1 and missed a routine straight in shot getting to
hill-hill. In the case game, Mitch almost sold out but got a roll to cover
up the cueball on his first shot. They traded position back and forth before Mitch
fired in a shot only he can make, making the 8 ball and coming 4 rails for shape. Mitch got another chance and ran 7 balls and was left without a shot and sold out. Scott ran some tough balls and missed another routine shot with 3 balls left on the table for the end of his tournament. Taking home $470 for his efforts.
In the finals, Mitch got a chance for some redemption against Mike, and jumped out
to a 3 - 1 lead. And then a 4 - 2 lead before running out the finals balls
to take the Arizona State 1 Pocket Championship.
Congrat's to all the players! The next stop is Pocket's Tucson on Sept 19/20 for Big Table 10 ball. Sign up at 10 am, draw at 11 am. Collared shirts and no flip flop sandals.
1.
Mitch Ellerman $1130
2.
Mike Pankof $740
3.
Scott Frost $470
4.
Ronn Rutan $250
5/6
Gus Briseno $150
5/6
George Teyachea $150
7/8
Angel Martinez $100
7/8
Bernie Pettipiece $100
