Teen With Cancer Gets to Play Baseball With USD Toreros

Jake Hernandez has been in the hospital battling Hodgkin’s Lymphoma for the past year

For Jake Hernandez the sound of balls and bats replace the sound of medical machines.

The Make A Wish foundation and the University of San Diego Toreros got together to make Hernandez’s dreams come true at Fowler Park Saturday.

“I would’ve never thought any of this would be possible,” the teen beams from center field.

That’s because over the past year, Jake has been in the hospital battling Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

“It’s cancer in the lymph nodes,” he explains. “It attacks the immune system, and through that journey I was able to make new friends and have a new understanding of life.”

Saturday his new friends were the Toreros. They heard Jake loved baseball through the Make A Wish Foundation, so the charity teamed up with NBC 7 to get Jake and his family enough Wishes in Flight miles to send his family to Costa Rica.

The Toreros asked Jake to throw out the first pitch when he came back.

“It’s just incredible to see him on the mound like that and just be a teenager,” Jake’s mom, Marlene Hernandez tells NBC 7.

Jake is now out of the hospital and in remission. He’s determined to forever beat the cancer.

“It felt really good,” Hernandez adds. “I could really feel the adrenaline.”

His family hopes other kids will have the same opportunity Jake did.

“Keep with make a wish,” Marlene Hernandez says. “Keep your donations going because you really have no idea how much impact you can have on a child. “

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