Gabe Bierman is a pitcher for the IU baseball team. Last season as a true freshman out of Jeffersonville, Indiana he slowly became more and more important for the Hoosiers, constantly improving over the course of the season. In May he was the pitcher tasked with closing out the win that clinched IU’s first Big Ten championship since 2014, throwing three shutout innings to cap off a historic regular season.
That performance became even more noteworthy after the game when IU head coach Jeff Mercer revealed that Bierman’s father Dougie had passed away just days earlier. Bierman continued to pitch through IU’s postseason run, showing admirable composure and toughness while picking up the lone win of the Louisville regional for the Hoosiers in a matchup with Illinois-Chicago.