Dace Kime's first season as a professional baseball player has come to a close ... almost.

Kime, a former Defiance High School and University of Louisville pitching standout, was the third-round pick of the Cleveland Indians this past June in the 2013 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. The big right-hander signed his first professional baseball contract before heading to the Mahoning Valley Scrappers (Single-A Short-Season) of the New York-Penn League. Kime, who cut his season short to go back to Louisville to finish his degree in exercise science with a minor in psychology, will head to Goodyear, Ariz., on Thursday for two weeks of instructional league before his first pro season officially comes to a close.

"Looking back, it felt like everything was a rush from the time I was drafted, to how quickly I signed to how quickly I began playing," said Kime, a 2010 DHS grad who as also drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates out of high school before deciding to go to college. "After I got back from Omaha (College World Series), within five days I started my pro career. I can say that the talent level I faced wasn't much different than college, but my first season was a learning experience.

"I learned quickly the difference between college baseball and professional baseball," added Kime. "In college, it's all about the team and it's all about winning ... in the pros it's all about player development, moving up the ladder and playing your best all the time. You have to if you want to reach that ultimate goal of playing in the major leagues."

In his senior season at Louisville, Kime was used as a long reliever, a closer, and more at the end of the season as a starter. With the Scrappers, who are based in Niles, Ohio, Kime was used exclusively as a starter. Knowing that Kime hadn't started games a full season with Louisville, Mahoning Valley limited Kime's innings at the beginning, with four innings his longest start.

"The organization understood that I hadn't had a lot of starts in college this spring, so I was only pitching a few innings at the beginning before they let me throw more pitches per start," Kime said. "At Louisville the team needed me to fill roles, be a power pitcher and strike guys out. As a professional, the organization wants me to be a starter and they're working with me to do that."

In 2013, Kime made nine starts for the Scrappers, where he finished 0-2 with a 2.92 ERA in 24 2/3 innings pitched. The 6-4, 200-pound, righty allowed 19 hits, nine runs (eight earned) while striking out 26 and walking 16. Opposing batters hit just .224 against Kime.

"Having so many guys from Defiance and from the area play professionally before I did, I had the opportunity to talk to a lot of them so I had a good idea what to expect my first year," said Kime, who talked with former DHS standouts Jon Niese (starting pitcher New York Mets), Tyler Burgoon (relief pitcher in Seattle organization) and Justin Hancock (starting pitcher in San Diego organization), as well as Matt Wisler of Bryan (starting pitcher in San Diego organization). "I wasn't surprised by too much, although I was surprised that a lot of the Single-A stadiums are so nice. I've been to Fort Wayne and Toledo, and some of them are as nice or better.

"Having those guys to talk to was a big help, I can't even imagine the stress that Chad (Billingsley) went through when he was drafted (Billingsley was a first-round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2003 out of Defiance High School)," added Kime. "At that time, there weren't too many guys from the area who had been drafted, but now there's a lot. All of them made it much easier for me."

Now Kime will head to Arizona to continue working on becoming a better pitcher. The right-hander is looking forward to working with people directly from the organization.

"It's an honor to be selected to go to instructional league," Kime said. "The Indians let me end my season early so I could get a jump start on finishing my degree and now I'm ahead of where I need to be as far as school. But now I'll have the chance to work with coaches in the organization to get better and to work on what they want me to work on.

"There's a list of things they want me to do, work on having a higher leg kick, staying closed longer, staying back longer, things like that," concluded Kime. "They want me be a power pitcher, so they want to fine-tune my mechanics so I can be that type of pitcher."