Posted: Thursday, April 23, 2015 11:41 pm
By ANDREW GREGORY sports@newsandtribune.com
JEFFERSONVILLE — The Red Devils defeated St. Xavier (Ky.) 12-5 on Thursday night behind a good night at the plate and exceptional starting pitching.
Jeffersonville freshman starter Gabe Bierman pitched five innings and only allowed three runs with six strikouts before being replaced by relief pitcher Cam Northern in the sixth inning.
“I’m very proud of Gabe and how a 15-year-old freshman responded against one of the top teams in Kentucky,” Jeffersonville coach Derek Ellis said. “I’m proud of all our guys and [fellow-freshman] Bailey Falkenstein was another bright spot at shortstop and at the plate.”
“My breaking ball was working really well and I had a really good defense behind me,” Bierman said.
St. Xavier — ranked No. 1 in Kentucky — defeated Floyd Central, which is No. 1 in Indiana, on Wednesday night. The Tigers starting pitcher, Daniel Fisher, only pitched two innings. It was enough to earn the loss.
The Tigers looked strong in the top of the first, bringing in two runs, but Jeffersonville countered with four runs of their own in the bottom of that inning, and never looked back.
“Other than the first-inning jitters and two errors on one play, we played about as good as we can play,” Ellis said. “Of the seven games we played, that was our best outing so far.”
“The first inning, we [got on top of Bierman]. We scored two and left the bases loaded, but a double play ends the inning,” St. Xavier coach Andy Porta said.
After the first, though, the Tigers were held scoreless until the fourth inning. The same could not be said for the Red Devils, who scored once in the bottom of the second, and put up seven runs in the third, an inning in which Jeffersonville batted through its entire lineup.

“We hit the ball,” Ellis said. “It was nice. We hit the ball top-to-bottom [of the lineup] and we had a lot of guys who got some nice hits with two strikes.”
“You have to give Jeff all of the credit in the world,” Porta said.
Jeff, which beat rival New Albany 5-4 on Wednesday night, will try to continue its winning streak Saturday when it travels to Bedford to take on the Class 4A No. 4 Stars.
JEFFERSONVILLE 12, ST. XAVIER (KY.) 5
St. Xavier 200 010 2— 5 10 2
Jeffersonville 417 000 x—12 14 3
W — Gabe Bierman (2-0). L — Daniel Fisher (1-1). 2B — Nick Nelson (X), Joe Burke (J), 3B — Jeremiah Phelps (J).
Records — St. Xavier 16-7, Jeffersonville 5-2