Gier tosses gem in Demon win

In search of the first win of the season, Washington pitcher Michael Gier stepped on the mound and delivered on Friday afternoon.

The sophomore allowed three hits in his 2015 debut, allowing one unearned run, as the Demons defeated Central Lee, Donnellson 9-1.

?At first, I couldn?t find my first-pitch fastball for a strike, so I was getting down in the count,? Gier said. ?I worked my way around it and started to get some strikeouts. I knew I had a good defense out there for me, so they really helped me out.?

Gier finished the night with four strikeouts and allowing one walk, as the Demons improved to 1-2 on the season.

After the game, Washington head coach Nathan Miller was happy with the performance of Gier, who won four games in seven starts last season.

?It?s really big,? Miller said. ?(Thursday) in practice, we worked with the pitchers on a couple of things, then before we left we talked about focusing on the first pitch on every batter. We?ve been a little off on first pitches and getting behind in counts. (Gier) did a tremendous job with that tonight.?

After being held at bay for the first three innings, the Demons got on the board in the fourth when Ryan Loy hit a two-RBI double that reached the left-centerfield wall, scoring Jacob Hall and Blake Weidman.

That hit seemed to set the tone for the Demons.

?On Loy?s double, you could see everyone kind of settle in and say, ?Hey, I can do that too,? and it was a ripple effect,? Miller said. ?All the way through the lineup, we have the same type of hitters. All of them are capable of stepping up and hitting a shot through the gap.?

In the fifth, Bryce Craff had an RBI single to score Noah Enfield, before Central Lee picked up a run on an error in the top of the sixth.

Washington responded with a six-run bottom of the sixth, with Craff picking up another RBI, two runs scoring on an error and two more scoring on a passed ball.

Michael Ellingson came in to pitch a scoreless top of the seventh for the victory.

?Improvement was all it was,? Miller said. ?With a young group, hopefully we?ll see that all season. They?ll continue to build and gain confidence and a little comfort. We had a lot of guys play tonight and I?ve said that all season long. If there are some guys that are hot or some key regulars, we?ll stick with them, but we?ll be rotating a lot of guys.?

With the first victory of the season under their belt, the Demons are looking to build off the win heading into the conference season.

?I feel pretty good,? Gier said. ?I have a lot of confidence in our team. I think we can get a couple of wins in Fort Madison and then we?ll be up in the lead for conference.?

The Demons will open up their conference doubleheader at Fort Madison at 5:30 p.m. on Monday