Singles and Scotch Champion Melinda Bailey
This year, Bad Boys Billiard Productions moved the BCAPL Texas 8-Ball State Championships to the Mayborn Center in Temple, Texas. Action was hot and heavy in 13 different tournaments from April 1st through 7th, 2014.
Action got started on Tuesday morning, April 1st with 40 Mixed Scotch Doubles teams chasing their dreams of being Texas State Champions and the $800 prize check that would accompany that honor. The teams of Beatty & Hyde and Bailey & Jones raced to the hot seat match playing a match every two hours until their showdown against each other at 8 PM. Both teams eager to guarantee themselves a spot in the finals played a very close match that saw Bailey & Jones prevail in a 4-3 win. Beatty & Hyde would now have to travel to the left side of the board to win a match to earn a chance for revenge in the finals. They were not the only team looking to exact a little payback for an earlier loss. The team of Franklin & Hess suffered a very close loss in their first match of the tournament to Beatty & Hyde and marched through the one loss side of the bracket with 8 straight wins to earn that shot at payback with Beatty & Hyde. In another tightly contested match, Franklin & Hess prevailed with a 4-2 victory and a shot at Bailey & Jones in the finals. The four combatants would have to wait until 2 PM Sunday afternoon as they also were competing in the Singles and Team tournaments. Due to the fact that Bailey & Jones were undefeated, they would have to be beaten twice in the finals and that is just what Franklin & Hess set out to do with a hill-hill victory in the first set, forcing the second and deciding set. Both teams regrouped and played another tightly contested set with Bailey & Jones coming through with the 4-3 victory and title of 2014 BCAPL Texas State Scotch Doubles Champions!
Wednesday morning the Men’s Open Singles and Men’s B Singles got underway with 202 players doing battle on the 80 Diamond tables. The Men’s Open Singles is a race to 5 with Advanced players having to win one more game if playing an Open player. After 14 hours of play, the list of undefeated players had gone from 110 players down to one, Advanced player, Cesar Garcia Jr., by result of a 6-1 victory over Frank Ferrer Jr. in the hot seat match. Frank would now have to win a match on the one loss side to earn a rematch with Garcia. That he did with a 5-0 win over Leonel Torres who finished 3rd. Ferrer would now have to beat Garcia twice to win the title and that Is exactly what he did with matching 5-2 wins Ferrer Jr. collected $1,520 plus the winner’s trophy for his performance.
In the Men’s B division, 92 players arrived with cues in tow to do battle. Roy Shumacher raced through the event undefeated, beating Adrian Womack Jr., who after losing his very first match of the tournament 4-2 to Victor Dabu, went on a tear winning eleven straight matches to make to the finals. Adrian came up one game short of the 4-3 final match score and had to settle for a second place finish and $290 in prize money for his hard work. Schumacher received the first place trophy and $460 for his stellar play.
Wednesday afternoon also saw the women come in to start their Open divisions with 29 in the Open and 16 in the B division. Good friends and teammates, Melinda Bailey and Tracie Voelkering battled their ways through a tough field to meet in the hot seat match that was won by Bailey by a 4-2 score. Tracie then went to the one loss side and defeated Angela Garza in a very close 4-3 match to earn a second shot at Melinda in the finals. Garza had to settle for a 3rd place finish. The finals would only last one set as Melinda Bailey continued her smart stellar play and defeat Voelkering 4-1 to win her very first Texas State Women’s open Singles Championship, the trophy and a $550 first prize. Couple with her win in the Scotch Doubles, made this a very nice week for Melinda!
In the Women’s B division, Stephanie Reyes went through the field undefeated and beat Cindy Vansickle 4-1 in the finals to win the trophy and $150 first prize.
Thursday morning got the Men’s Senior division underway with 74 experienced players playing a race to 5 to see who the champion would be. That man would be Kenny Ellis. Ellis marched his way through the field and claimed the hot seat with a 5-2 win over Pete Stoval sending him to the one loss side where he would meet Ismael Ramirez. Ramirez prevailed this time and would get a shot at Ellis in the finals. Ramirez won the first set with a 5-3 win sending the finals to a second and deciding set. Ellis regrouped though and left no doubt who the champion would be with a convincing 5-1 victory. Along with the BCAPL Texas State Senior Singles trophy, Ellis was rewarded with $1,100 for his stellar play.
Friday saw the teams roll in to do battle. Ninety three Mixed Open teams and 23 Women’s Open teams began their quest to be Texas State Champions! In the Mixed Open division, The Hitmen raced through the field undefeated and handled the Top Dawgs in the finals 13-5 to win the title and the $4,780 first place money. In the Women’s Open teams Boom Shaka Laka also went undefeated and beat the Elementals in the finals 11-8 to take the title and the $1,000 first place prize money.
Along with all the main events, there were also five Second Chance tournaments. In the Men’s Open Second chance, Chris Romero bested the 52 player field. In the Men’s B Second chance, Darren Charles double dipped Matt Jarolik in the finals to best the 35 player field. In the Women’s Open Singles, Celeste Espinosa came out on top of the seven player field. Team Second Chance winners were Chosen Few and Caught Strokin.
Along with all these tournaments, Bad Boys Billiard Productions did their best to insure the players got their green fees worth of playing pool and ran 98 mini tournaments during the event. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Mayborn Center and their friendly and helpful staff for making this such an enjoyable venue to hold this prestigious event. We also want to thank each player who came to participate and support this great sport we all love. We look forward to an even bigger and better event next year!
