The Arizona State All Around Championship held it's first stop of the season in Tucson with a field of 38 players at Main Street Billiards for the Arizona State 10-Ball Championship.
Although the field had its share of high power shooters, the real story was the play of Tucson's Zeb Crawford and Eric Beeler. These two may not be as well known around the state as some other players, but none of the fans in Tucson were surprised when Crawford and Beeler made their way to the quarter final match to face off for the hot-seat knocking off players like Don Westbrooks, Rodney 'Babe' Thompson and Chris Adams on the way.
While both players had played fearless pool all weekend, the nerves might have gotten the better of them both going into the quarter finals. Beeler took advantage of some early mistakes by Crawford and took an early 3-0 lead. Zeb fought back to tie the score at 4-4 and take his first lead at 5-4. Eric tied the match at 5-5, but Crawford had his confidence back and went on to take control and score the 9-6 win for the hot-seat.
On the one loss side, Beeler found Phoenix's young gun Mitch Ellerman waiting. Ellerman had just scored a 7-5 win over Chris Adams and had his sights set on Crawford in the finals. Ellerman had his hands full with Beeler first though, as Beeler took a 2-0 lead before Ellerman was able to get much of a chance at the table. Ellerman was able to tie the match at 4-4 and at 5-5, it truly looked like anyone's match. The pool gods did not smile on Beeler though as Ellerman snapped a 10-ball to get to the hill at 6-5 and the pool gods completely turned their back on Beeler when he made the 9-ball in the next game but scratched 3 rails coming around for shape on the 10.
Ellerman had been wowing the crowd all day with his razor sharp cuts and creative outs, but Zeb quickly showed he was not intimidated at all in the final match. Zeb ran the first rack and went on take an early 3-1 lead. Mitch was able to come back and tie the match at 5-5 but he could not make Zeb go away. Mitch was able to take his first lead at 8-7 and then pulled ahead 9-7. Zeb came back with two games to tie the match at 9-9 and then made a 10-ball break to get to the hill. The next game saw Mitch miss a tough 6 ball and never get another shot as Zeb ran out the final few balls for the Arizona State 10-Ball Championship.
Complete Payouts:
1st Zeb Crawford $925
2nd Mitch Ellerman $855
3rd Eric Beeler $380
4th Chris Adams $270
5th/6th Rodney Thompson, Larry Gerber $150
7th Gene Brown, Ken Gouso $100
* All Payouts Include Sidepots
