Georgetown off to regional quarterfinals after hammering A&M Consolidated

GEORGETOWN — The message on the lineup board in the Georgetown dugout for its Class 5A area round playoff series with A&M Consolidated was a simple one: “This weekend is just a formality.”

It’s a powerful statement, but one the defending Class 5A champions can make — and ultimately backed up.

The Eagles took a dominating 7-1 win in the series-deciding Game 3 Saturday at Georgetown High School to advance to the regional quarterfinals and keep their hopes of a repeat alive.

Sophomore pitcher David Fluitt scattered six hits over six innings and both Ryley Leininger and Brady Peters finished with three hits to pace Georgetown.

“It’s exciting for a sophomore like David Fluitt to show up like the way he did and be in the strike zone, and defensively we picked it up, were clean and made good throws to first,” Georgetown coach Jordon Vierra said. “When we play good defense, we’re typically pretty competitive. And on offense we had guys getting big hits at the right time and working walks.”

Fluitt was solid from start to finish.

He allowed few hard-hit balls and worked out of a two-out, bases-loaded jam in the sixth with one of his three strikeouts.

“I tried to show them who was boss and went after them,” he said. “In an elimination game like this, I came in just trying to keep us in the game and be competitive. I pounded the zone with the fastball and the slider and let the defense do the work. There were some great plays behind me today.”

Georgetown (24-13-1) gave Fluitt an early lead.

Devin Peterson led off the Eagles’ half of the first with a triple, then scored the next at-bat on a wild pitch.

Two walks and Leininger’s RBI single highlighted the rest of the inning as Georgetown pushed three runs across.

“When you come out and throw a big right hand in the first inning, that typically makes everybody calm down a little bit,” Vierra said. “It lets everybody relax and know that we have a little bit of room to play with. And we stayed on it the rest of the game.”

Lane McGuire’s RBI single in the fourth accounted for the Tigers’ run, but the Eagles answered with Chance Pernicka’s run-scoring double in the bottom half of the inning.

Leininger’s hit to score Peters and Eli Hellman’s two-run single in the fifth pushed Georgetown's lead to the final margin and, for all intents and purposes, put the game away.

“Hard work pays off," Leininger said. “We’re here day in and day out at practice, and we come out in games and that shows. … For me, the ball looked like a beach ball today.”

Noah Booras pitched a perfect seventh to close out the contest, and the Eagles will play Lake Creek for a chance to go to the regional tournament.

And while the majority of last year’s state championship squad graduated and Georgetown is essentially a new team, this version of the Eagles is eager to make its mark.

“These guys have grown exponentially this year,” Vierra said. “When we started the season, these guys were wide-eyed and scared to death at times. They’ve settled in and figured out who they are. They aren’t trying to be last year. They’ve stayed in the moment with themselves, and it’s been fun to watch this group grow together and do such a great job.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Georgetown dominates A&M Consolidated to advance in playoffs