INDIANAPOLIS ¬– It was a year to remember for teams from Evansville, part of the Southern Indiana American Poolplayers Association, at the Indiana APA State Team tournament.
In March, an Evansville team, consisting of Team Captain Brian Hinkle, Amanda Grant, Cole Simpson, Jessica Embry, Scott Blair, Amber Capo, Fred Hinkle and Anthony Roy won the 19th Annual APA State tournament in Muncie.
But in December the team looked different from March. Hinkle was still the team captain and Capo returned for the Evansville team in December at the 20th Annual APA State Team tournament. In addition, Courtney Helmbrecht, Derek Sander, Nick Yopp, Maxine Crabtree, Patrick Akers and Charles Elrod were new players. Hinkle said he split the team from March in to two teams.
“The other team made it in the top 32,” Hinkle said. “This team was supposedly the underdog for my two teams, but they are amazing.”
Capo, Hinkle and Grant were the returning players that won the state title in March.
“It’s pretty awesome winning the state title in the same year,” Capo said. “To get win two state titles, it’s odd to do that and it just feels great to win.”
Let’s Go Brandon was making their first state championship appearance, second appearance as a town, while Caught Strokin’ made its first for Kokomo.
Let’s Go Brandon went through “Team A” bracket and won seven straight to advance to the finals. The Kokomo team lost its second-round match in the “Team C” bracket to Ball Busters. It forced them to win one losers bracket to advance to the final bracket.
Championship match
Let’s Go Brandon, won 7-1 the 20th annual state title against Caught Strokin’ on Dec. 5 in Indianapolis.
“I was told it couldn’t be done, after winning the one in March, this field is very tough,” Hinkle said.
Let’s Go Brandon managed to win the first three individual matches with the fourth player winning one game in their match.
The marquee match pitted Let’s Go Brandon’s Charles Elrod, a Skill Level No. 7, against Caught Strokin’s Jarred Haney, a Skill Level No. 7. Both players needed to win five games.
Elrod won the first two games to go up 2-0. Then, Haney won the third game to avoid the shutout. Elrod won the fourth and fifth games to give himself a 4-1 lead. The Evansville player needed just one more game to win the match.
Haney won the sixth game to trail 4-2 going into the seventh. In the seventh game, Elrod was in a pickle on the 8-Ball. After drawing back the cue ball after hitting the 5-ball in, Elrod focused on the 8-Ball. He marked his pocket on the far back pocket on the right and had to stretch himself to try and make the 8-Ball. He took a deep breath and shot the cue-ball with top left English and sent it to the 8-Ball. The cue-ball and 8-Ball connected and the ladder rolled into the pocket with the cue-ball hitting the top rail, away from any pockets.
“You just focus on the spot on the ball and you try to hit it right,” Elrod said about the last shot. “If you start thinking about where you’re going to place the cue-ball, then you miss. So you just make the ball.”
Let’s Go Brandon won $4,000 split amongst eight players while Caught Strokin’ won $2,500 split with eight players.
The players part of Caught Strokin’ were: Team Captain Jarred Haney, Brandon Ward, Chase Haney, Hayley Blair, Jennifer Wolfenbarger, Joseph Osborne, Katelynn Crull and Samantha Beck.
Next state
The next APA Indiana State tournament is Nov. 30 – Dec. 4 at the Indianapolis Marriott East. The teams part of the tournament starts at 8 a.m. Dec. 2.
This year, the state tournament is having players sign up via the CompuSport app. Early Bird registration, where all the events are lowered in price, ends Friday. The entry fee for teams is $400, which is $50 per person for an 8-man team for the early bird registration. The entry fee through the regular registration, which starts Oct. 15-26, is $450 for a team.
The winning team will split $8,000 while second place earns $6,500.
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List of winners
8-Ball Teams
1st: Let’s Go Brandon, Evansville APA, $4,000
2nd: Caught Strokin’, North Central Indiana APA, $2,500
9-Ball 3-Man
1st: The Gamblers (Benjamin Hunter, Juan Vasquez and Zach Deak), Central Indiana APA, $1,500
2nd: 3 King Sharpshooters (Brent Sturm, Chad McDonald and Milton Gibbs), North Central Indiana APA, $800
8-Ball Scotch Doubles
1st: Logan Orth and Samantha Lamon (Walk it Like You Chalk It), Evansville APA, $2,200
2nd: Fredrick Babcock and Amanda Sweeney (Easy Does It), Central Indiana APA, $1,100
9-Ball Scotch Doubles
1st: Mike Hardy and Kevin Toler (It’s All Good), North Central Indiana APA, $1,150
2nd: Earl Moore and Zach Taylor (187 Shootem), North Central Indiana APA, $625
Ladies
1st: Julie Harder, Hui Chang and Julie Huffman (Squeezed Between Jewels), Central Indiana APA, $800
2nd: Patricia Barr, Andrew Wright, Dana Drenzek and Melissa Crowley (Miss Q’s), West Central Indiana APA, $400
Seniors
1st: Dennis Schnell, Evansville, $1,000
2nd: Dawayne Pearson, Plainfield, $500
8-Ball Singles
2-3s
1st: Marvin Hatfield, Terre Haute, $900
2nd: Brian Clegg, Indianapolis, $450
4s
1st: Satyam Bagaria, Bloomington, $1,100
2nd: Spencer Gaddie, Plainfield, $650
5s
1st: Austin Stacy, Unionville, $1,100
2nd: Paul Tomlin, Louisville, $650
6s
1st: Blake Franklin, Evansville, $1,100
2nd: Cody Cameron, Mount Vernon, $650
7s
1st: Philip Smedley, Lafayette, $1,500
2nd: Brian Gregg, Indianapolis, $750
9-Ball Singles
1-2-3s
1st: Gwen Dunn, Cicero, $825
2nd: Rick Perez, Bloomington, $500
4-5s
1st: Zach Deak, Indianapolis, $1,200
2nd: TJ Trueblood, Greenwood, $800
6-7s
1st: Devanish Budhrani, Bloomington, $1,000
2nd: Tony Sauer, Louisville, $500
8-9s
1st: Jennifer Swenson, Yorktown, $800
2nd: Fredrick Babcock, Indianapolis, $400
Patrick Murphy 