STVM baseball pitcher Aiden Dine perfect on Senior Night

St. Vincent-St. Mary senior Aiden Dine achieved a rare feat Tuesday when he pitched a perfect game in his first varsity start on the mound.

Dine struck out seven over five innings as STVM defeated Cleveland Garrett Morgan 22-0 at the University of Akron’s Skeeles Field.

Dine, a 5-foot-10, 160-pound left-hander, threw 45 pitches to 15 batters, 76% for strikes, and also fielded two additional outs from the mound in the Senior Night victory.

“It was certainly a blessing,” Dine said of the perfect game. “I throw four pitches, a few variations of a two-seam fastball, curveball, changeup and forkball. They were all working for me.”

Dine’s mother, Kelly, described the perfect game as “bittersweet” for her son because the family lost Aiden’s father and Kelly’s husband, Jeff Dine, to metastatic cancer and leukemia eight months ago at the start of the school year.

“His dad’s fervent wish had been to live long enough to see his son graduate from St. Vincent-St. Mary High School and pitch for the varsity Fighting Irish,” Kelly Dine said.

Said Aiden: “What I really loved was that it was Senior Night and I know that my dad was with me. It was one of his dreams to watch me pitch [in high school], and unfortunately that didn’t happen, but I know he still had the best seats. … I get a lot of support from my family and my teammates, especially. I don’t think I can do this without them.”

Kelly Dine added that Aiden wears No. 22 for two reasons.

“No. 1, he still hears his dad heartily yelling out ‘Deuces!’ every time Jeff saw the double twos on the uniform,” Kelly Dine said. “No. 2, coach Adrian Abrahamowicz, a beloved longtime Oberlin head coach, and Aiden's T3 Warhawks summer baseball mentor, who passed away from cancer just nine days before Aiden’s dad did, wore No. 22."

STVM interim co-head coaches Don Coughlin and Lou Kolasky said Dine received an ice bath after the game on the field.

“Aiden was so efficient with his pitches, it was sick,” Coughlin said. “His off-speed stuff was working great and it set up his fastball, and the Garrett Morgan kids couldn’t touch it.”

Dine, who has a 4.0 GPA, is a first-year STVM varsity player. He also plays alto saxophone and baritone saxophone in STVM's marching band, is in the theatre program, is a Kairos leader and a student government participant. He plans to study pre-med at the University of Pittsburgh.

Junior Devon Lehman hit a single and a triple and had three RBIs to lead STVM offensively past Garrett Morgan. Senior Nick Tura had a single, a triple and two RBIs and junior Daniel Krabill added a triple and two runs.

Krabill is batting a team-high .432 with one home run and three triples.

Michael Beaven can be reached by email at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com and is on Twitter at @MBeavenABJ.

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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: St. Vincent-St. Mary baseball senior Aiden Dine pitches perfect game