Mitch Ellerman KO’ed a field of 35 players to win the Desert Classic Tour Stop on February 9th - 10th at River City Pockets.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Ellerman though, as he was forced to take a standing eight count after a 7-7 loss to Rick Armbrust on Saturday.
Ellerman was not the only player to suffer an unexpected Saturday loss. Last month’s winner, Nick De Leon, was sent home on Saturday after losses to Mike Sandoval and Tres Kane. Bobby Emmons was also sent packing on Saturday after losses to Dennis Orender and Tres Kane. Pete Lhotka, Brett Huth and Paul Grande also finished out of the money on Saturday.
As play got underway on Sunday, the final eight players got things started. Mike Sandoval sent New Mexico’s Mickey Provencio to the one loss side 8-3 and B player Rick Armbrust beat Chuck Evans 7-6.
Sandoval and Armbrust then met in an 8-7 race for the hot-seat, and Armbrust scored the hill-hill win.
On the one loss side, Ellerman got up off the canvas and beat Will Sexton in a one sided 10-4 match, and Tres Kane sent Dennis Orender back to the tournament director’s booth with an 8-7 scoreline.
Ellerman then defeated Provencio 10-7, while Chuck Evans was ending Tres Kane’s day with an 8-6 win.
Ellerman then forced Evans to tap out after a 10-2 match, and Ellmerman set his sites on Mike Sandoval.
While Ellerman played his usual game in the match against Sandoval, the real story of the match seemed to be the pool gods getting even with Sandoval over something. Sandoval seemed to get every bad roll imaginable and then more bad rolls after that. Sandoval trailed the match early 6-1, and ended up losing 10-4.
This left Ellerman as the only obstacle between Rick Armbrust and the DCT’s first B rated Open event winner.
The finals would be a double elimination 10-7 race and the first match seemed to turn in Ellerman’s favor in rack five. Armbrust had matched Ellerman punch for punch in the first four racks and the score was tied at 2-2. Armbrust would miss the 10-ball in rack five and Ellerman would bank the ball in for a 3-2 lead. That game was the beginning of the end for Armbrust as he wouldn’t win another game until rack eight, with Ellerman leading 5-2. Ellerman would go on to take the first set 10-3.
Ellerman really let out his stroke and put on a show for the fans in the second set of the finals. Mitch brought out all of the tricks he had from banks to caroms and quickly raced to a 6-1 lead. The Ellerman Express stalled a little after that and Armbrust won three straight games to get back into the match at 6-4, but Ellerman quickly took control back and cruised to a 10-7 win and first place.
The DCT’s next stop will be a B/C only event on March 23rd and 24th at Bullshooters in Phoenix.
