UM Hurricanes bat boy on the mend, back on the diamond after battling serious health condition
MIAMI - A young baseball player who was forced to step away from the game for years because of a serious health condition is back on the diamond doing what he loves after thinking he would never play again.
When we last caught up with University of Miami bat boy J.M. Quijano in May, he was getting the 'home run juice treatment' by the Hurricanes.
"This is the closest to playing baseball and it's really fun," he said at the time.
Now, more than three months since his final surgery for ulcerative colitis, Quijano took to the field for the first time with his new team.
"It is awesome, just awesome like I never thought it would happen," he said.
On his first at-bat, he put the ball in play.
"I wasn't that nervous, I knew I could at least make contact," said Quijano.
It was that confidence that got him through all those hospital visits and his love for the game of baseball that has gotten him back on the diamond.
But he wasn't satisfied with just making contact on Wednesday, he got his first hit.
"Awesome, it felt incredible. I never thought it would happen, it's not that I didn't feel the same. it felt glorious," said Quijano.
A feeling like the perfect swing every ball player strives for.
"Now the goal is probably to take as many cuts as I can and hit the ball as hard as I can," he said.
Not only is Quijano back playing the game he loves, but he's also now allowed to eat all of the different foods he couldn't before, like ribs - his favorite.