Paul Skenes and Olivia Dunne are often preoccupied with their respective sports. However, on Sunday, the young couple found a chance to spend some quality time together.
While Skenes is undoubtedly itching for his MLB debut, Dunne carved out some time to visit her boyfriend in Indianapolis to watch him pitch.
Dunne, an LSU gymnast and Instagram star, shared her snapshots from Victory Field, home of the Indianapolis Indians. Skenes started the game, lasting 4.1 innings and surrendering two earned runs in an 8-3 victory over the Buffalo Bisons. Dunne, who announced her relationship with Skenes last summer, captioned the pictures with "baseballin' this Sunday."
Skenes, a 6-foot-6 pitcher selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates with the first pick in last year's draft out of LSU, pitches for Triple-A Indianapolis. According to Pirates general manager Ben Cherington, the move was made to allow him a chance to "tick some boxes."
Sunday was the seventh outing of the season in Triple-A for the Pittsburgh Pirates' first-rounder. Despite surrendering a pair of runs, Skenes still boasts a 1.32 ERA as well as 45 strikeouts in 27 innings.
Following a meal of chicken tenders at the ballpark, Dunne and Skenes hit up St. Elmo's, Indianapolis' landmark steakhouse, for a postgame dinner.
During the COVID lockdowns of 2020, Olivia Dunne began posting videos of her routines on TikTok. Before long, her following blew up, and she now boasts millions of followers across her various channels. As such, virtually anything the New Jersey native does is met with a great deal of fan interest.
Paul Skenes remains positive despite minor setback
As luck would have it, Paul Skenes surrendered the first home run of his MiLB career on Sunday in front of his girlfriend. Despite the setback, the esteemed pitcher still believes that his call to the MLB is imminent, telling MLB.com about his performance, which came on four days rest:
"The biggest thing is just the learning experience of it all, doing the five day is a little bit different, so (I'm) just trying to figure out the routine of it and getting used to it."
With Dunne set to graduate this year, and Skenes' chance at MLB action, fans of both young talents will be watching intently to see what summits they conquer next.