Paul Skenes’ introduction to Double-A didn’t go smoothly — even with his girlfriend, LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne, cheering him on.
The No. 1 pick in July’s MLB Draft recorded just two outs while allowing four runs on three hits in the Altoona Curve’s 9-8 victory Saturday. Skenes also walked two batters and tallied both outs via strikeout.
The Pirates’ right-handed pitcher, who played collegiately and won a national title at LSU, has already impressed during his first few weeks of professional baseball and is largely considered the top pitching prospect in all of baseball.
He hit 100 mph in his debut and earned his Double-A call-up before the end of August.
Dunne, listed as the No. 2 for college athletes and NIL earnings at $3.2 million according to On3.com, has followed Skenes throughout those promotions too.
Skenes confirmed to the Pittsburgh Posts-Gazette in a story published Aug. 18 that the pair are dating.
Dunne appeared to confirm that she traveled to Peoples Natural Gas Field in Altoona, Pa. for the Curve’s game against the Akron RubberDucks on Saturday, tagging the field’s location — with a Pirates jersey — in an Instagram Story post, while also publishing a TikTok from the ballpark’s stands.
Skenes allowed a single and a walk before striking out his first RubberDucks batter, but runs then scored on a single and double before his outing ended following another strikeout and another walk.
It’s unclear how long Skenes was expected to throw before the early exit, since his previous three outings totaled four innings. He may have been on a strict pitch count.
Noe Toribio, who replaced Skenes from the Curve’s bullpen, then allowed two inherited runners to score, which finalized Skenes’ final numbers.
“Looking at the outing today, wasn’t probably the best stuff and it wasn’t the best execution,” Skenes said postgame, according to the Post-Gazette. “But, they hit three balls through the infield under 90 mph and nine times out of 10, I feel like those are outs and they just landed three of them.”
Skenes told the Post-Gazette earlier this month that his relationship with Dunne was “just a small-world type of thing,” something that began because Elena Marenas, Dunne’s LSU gymnastics teammate, was dating his friend.
Skenes transferred to LSU after spending his first two seasons at Air Force, and he compiled a 13-2 record with a 1.69 ERA while leading the Tigers to the College World Series.
He struck out 209 batters in 122 ⅔ innings.