ALIVE AND WELL
Georgetown senior Ben Bottlinger is a pitcher, quarterback and foremost a cancer survivor.
GEORGETOWN — George-town senior Ben Bottlinger has a dual- thre at arm. A two-year starter at quarterback for the Eagle s, Bottlinger also pitches for a Georgetown baseball team that has reached the Class 5A regional semifinals. On his Twitter profile, though, Bottlinger choose s to define himself, first and foremost, by two words: “Cancer Survivor.”
“That’s just been my founda- tion growing up,” Bottlinger said. “( It’s been) in the back of my mind, knowing that I survived something like that. It’s been near and dear to my heart, and it’s made me a strong person.”
In October of 2002, 5-year-old Bottlinger began complaining about pai ns in his stomach during a camping trip. A few days later, he was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, a rapidly developing form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Bottlinger ’s mother, Sarah, said the tumor in her son’s intestine
was discovered at an early stage, and he was treated at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin. His treatment lasted less than five months, and he rejoined his classmates in the first grade the following fall.
“It was fast and furious,” Sarah said of her son’s treatment.
A year before his diagnosis, Bottlinger had begun playing baseball, and his mother said he received a “get-out-ofjail free card” to sit on his T-ball team’s bench during his treatment. Twelve years later, Bottlinger and one of his T-ball teammates — Blake Anderson — make up twothirds of Georgetown’s postseason rotation.
Anderson (8-4, 1.69 ERA) and Bottlinger (4-0, 2.95 ERA), right-handed seniors, and junior lefty Brady Childress (3-3, 1.71 ERA) have combined to start 30 of Georgetown’s 32 games this season. Junior Daniel Lewis has made 16 relief appearances in 2015 (5-0 with four saves).
Georgetown graduated two all-district pitchers after the 2014 season, but the Eagles have won 19 of their past 23 games after a 3-6 start. With Baylor-bound first baseman T.J. Raguse and Texas A&M-signed shortstop George Janca also on its roster, Georgetown will face Mission Veterans Memorial in a playoff series that begins Thursday in Corpus Christi.
“We thought we were going to be weak in pitching when the season started, but it’s just a lot of guys working hard,” Anderson said. “We’ve come a long way for a pitching staff.”
All longtime Georgetown residents, the three starters are aware of their high school’s rich pitching history. Two former Eagles — Andrew McKirahan and Corey Knebel — have pitched in the major leagues this spring, and 2008 graduate Taylor Jungmann is on Milwaukee’s 40-man roster.
Former Texas Tech pitcher Sam Janca and one-time TCU hurler Erik Miller — the favorite pitchers of Anderson and Childress as youngsters — also have provided footsteps in which to follow.
Georgetown’s current group of pitchers might not match the pedigree of its predecessors — Bottlinger will play football at Colorado School of Mines while Anderson will attend Texas A&M as a student — but two victories this weekend could pull them even in the history books.
Georgetown last reached a regional final during Jungmann, McKirahan and Miller’s senior year.
“We’ve just got a bunch of guys who are willing to go out there and compete and throw strikes,” Bottlinger said. “It’s good to know that we can do some of the things that those big-time guys did without all the skills and the tools they had.”