Sugar Land Skeeters outfielder Neil Medchill never gets the chance to step on the mound at Constellation Field and pitch. He isn’t able to be credited with wins or saves. However, he is about to give up the rest of his baseball season and possibly his career, to save something more important than a game, a human life.

In February, Medchill put his name on a national bone marrow registry out of the blue. It was a quick process, a cotton swab in the mouth, and he sent it off. Medchill’s parents have been on the same list for 25 years and have never been called.

“I thought it was millions to one odds, I would ever be selected,” he said. “Three months later I was a match.”

Medchill described the entire process as “crazy.”

“The day before I was actually offered to go play overseas somewhere and I had to turn that down,” he said. “Then the next day I found out, on Breast Cancer Awareness Night, I was a match for a middle aged man.

Medchill doesn’t know much else about the man whose life he could help save. He doesn’t even know where the recipient of his marrow lives. He had to go through several blood tests to make sure he was the best possible match and the recipient has to be healthy enough through the chemo to have the procedure done. That time is coming soon.

“Apparently, it is go time,” Medchill said.

But the Skeeters still have 50 games to play in their Atlantic League season. Medchill does not. After giving the marrow, he won’t be allowed to do anything for two weeks.

“After two weeks most people go back to work,” he said. “Obviously my job is a little bit different.”

Instead of getting injections to pull stem cells out of the outfielder’s blood, the recipient needs marrow from his hips. That will require the doctors to draw from little tracks down the back of Medchill’s hips. They will pull the maximum amount of 1.5 liters of bone marrow.

“It is safe to say the future of my season is definitely in trouble,” he said. “I am not sure I am going to make it back this year or not.”

The rest of this season could easily mean the end of his career. Medchill’s parents were in attendance Sunday at Constellation Field as he collected a pair of doubles and one RBI in the Skeeters 2-0 win over Bridgeport.

“This is probably the last game I will play in front of them (parents),” he said.

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