Sickles’ McDonald: Fortunate and fearless after injury

By Chuck Frye, Staff Writer

TAMPA – With each pitch to a Durant batter, everyone at Jefferson High on Saturday could feel the emotions that Caden McDonald was feeling.

After all, just 10 days earlier, McDonald was not only wondering if he would return to the mound this season, he feared the loss of hearing in one of his ears. The results of a ringing line drive to his face from a Jefferson batter turned his future into a giant question mark.

But potential tragedy turned into a series of little victories that led the University of Central Florida signee and our 2022 Al-813Preps Player of the Year, back to the mound and to the team that he has bonded with.

“I got very fortunate that really the only issue was that my face was swollen,” McDonald related. “We were in the hospital, I had a fracture and I knew that, my ear was done and I didn’t know if I was going to be deaf or not. It was just really scary and we had no timetable.”

Read our game coverage of McDonald’s return in Saturday’s Saladino Tournament win against Durant, by clicking here.

Then the news turned brighter.

“They cleared all of the blood out of (my ear at the hospital), and on Monday I went to the ear doctor and they said your hearing is fine, your eardrums are fine and we’re going to give you the go-ahead to play.”

From there, it was back to business.

“He’s thrown a bullpen and he threw a live session with us last Wednesday when we intersquaded,” explained Sickles head coach Eric Luksis. “(Saturday) was the second time he’s been on the mound since the incident and the first against another team.”

“This is my second time getting hit in the face with a baseball on a line drive, so it’s nothing I haven’t done before,” McDonald explained. “I love the game too much to be scared. I just want to win, that’s all I want to do, and if me pitching, coming back and not being scared, is what helps us to win, then I’m going to do whatever it takes.”

But that’s not to say that he didn’t suffer some emotional flashbacks.

“I really didn’t have a break from it,” McDonald said with a chuckle. “I already had two comebackers in this game (Saturday). I really got tested.”

And, for now, he has emerged victorious.