Palatine baseball went into Wednesday’s rivalry matchup against Fremd with more than their opponent on their minds. On a chilly May afternoon, nearly 600 people from the Palatine community came out not only to see their baseball team defeat their rivals in thrilling fashion, but also to support former PHS baseball and basketball player Chris Macahon, who is battling stage 3 colon cancer.

Before the game even started you could tell that the game was going to have a special feel to it. Macahon delivered the ceremonial first pitch to get the crowd into the game. However, the Pirates couldn’t take advantage of the early momentum that the crowd gave them. Fremd was able to get runners in scoring position, but Palatine pitcher, senior Charlie Van Dyke, was able to keep them there for the most part. Fielding was the main key to the Vikings scoring their two runs.

“It was just a lot of guts,” Palatine’s head coach Paul Belo said. “I am so proud of the way the kids battled. We talk about competing until the last out. And to do this with this type of atmosphere is fantastic.”

Down 2-0 in the seventh, the Pirates used Chris’ fight as inspiration and was able to fight back themselves. With two outs and only a single runner on the bases, Palatine’s chances looked bleak. That’s when the bottom end of the batting order decided to give the home team a fighting chance. Van Dyke started it off by getting on with a single. Senior Anthony Portera acted next by moving Van Dyke to third with a single of his own.

Then, with a 3-2 count on him, senior Danny Amato was able to get another single, scoring Van Dyke and allowing Portera a chance to advance to third. Matt Lamb was next at the plate for the Pirates. Lamb was able to hit a slow roller to just the right part of the infield that scored the tying run. Junior Jack Grochowski believed he had won it for the Pirates when he hit another slow roller that was questionably called foul by the home plate umpire. Grochowski didn’t allow that to faze him however, on the very next pitch he was able to hit yet another slow roller that scored the winning run.

Nearly 600 people from all over Palatine came out in 45-degree temperatures for food, t-shirts and raffle prizes donated by local Palatine businesses. Macahon was overwhelmed by the response.

“It was a great atmosphere,” Macahon said. “It was more than a ballgame to me. It was great to have the community come out and support me.”

It was a great day for the Pirate community both on and off the field as the sMACk Cancer Out of the Park fundraiser raised around $7000 towards Chris’ treatment.