Bethel Baseball Player Andrew Dillon's Battle With Brain Cancer Inspiring Those Around Him

MISHAWAKA ― Andrew Dillon is used to wearing a hat. He’s done it his whole life playing baseball. Nowadays, he wears one out of necessity.

A giant scar runs across the skull of Dillon. Minimal hair is left.

This is what the new normal looks like for the 20-year-old Bethel University student, who was diagnosed with brain cancer in mid-February. It should have brought an end to his sophomore baseball season with the Pilots.

It did not.

Heart-dropping news

Symptoms for Dillon started in early February. After more than a week of headaches and throwing up, he decided to go to the ER. Tests done found a baseball-sized mass in his brain.

“I was kind of numb to it when they said there was a mass on my brain,” Dillon said. “I didn’t really know how to process that.”

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A few days later, it was determined that the mass was cancerous. The official diagnosis was glioblastoma. It was a disease Dillon’s mom, Michelle, knew all too well, as a coworker’s husband died from it this past December.

“I didn’t have to Google it,” Michelle Dillon noted.

Pray for Andrew Dillon! Doctors found a 5-6cm mass on his brain. He has surgery on Tuesday at Memorial Hospital! pic.twitter.com/7QnHUCDljF

— Bethel Pilots Baseball (@BUPilotsBB) February 15, 2025

Surgery took place Feb. 18. It was successful, with 95% of the mast being removed. The remaining 5% would be treated through radiation and chemotherapy.

“It was definitely good to hear some positive things out of it,” Andrew Dillon said. “The surgeon did very well. He was really humble about it ― he made it seem not as good as it actually was. He didn’t want to brag about himself, but he did very well.”

Dillon returned home to Wabash, Indiana, Feb. 22. Bethel was on spring break around this time, so he did not return to campus full-time until March 3. He was still able to attend a men’s basketball game and church in Mishawaka during that time off.

Community, faith important in Dillon's journey

Along with support from the outside, faith has been critical for the Dillon family during this entire journey.

“I don’t know how somebody would get through something like this without it,” Michelle Dillon said. “There’d be nothing to keep you going. I believe God’s not done with Andrew, and He knows what’s best.”

Both the Wabash and Bethel communities have come together to help Dillon. His baseball teammates visited the hospital multiple times, both before and after his surgery.

“I was able to visit him a few times in the hospital before his surgery, and you would never have known what he was going through,” junior baseball player Jordan Landkrohn said. “He was so high-spirited and ready to take it on. We were all super glad to see him in the hospital beforehand, and the team used it as an opportunity to all come together and rally around Andrew.”

Everyone around Dillon credited his positive mindset for inspiring their mentalities toward the entire situation. He’s tried to have as much fun with it as possible, posting “tumor humor” on Snapchat and making a “day in the life” video of himself on TikTok.

“He hasn’t been rattled or shaken through this yet,” Andrew’s father, Bryan Dillon, said. “He’s stayed steady, and he’s just a fighter. For him to not have a breakdown, emotionally, surprises me. What 20-year-old wouldn’t think their life was over? Their college career, their baseball career?

But he hit it head-on and said, ‘I’ll be OK, I have God.’ He’s a strong, strong man for his age.”

Returning to baseball

It didn’t take long for Dillon to return to the Bethel baseball team. He traveled with them to a road series at Indiana Wesleyan on March 8-9 and has been with them for all subsequent games.

While Dillon was in uniform, he did not play. That changed on March 22 in the final inning of a four-game series at Huntington. With the Pilots trailing, 13-1, Bethel manager Seth Zartman sent Dillon up to the plate in a pinch-hit situation.

Thirty-two days after having a baseball-sized tumor removed from his brain, Dillon was playing in a baseball game.

The left-handed batter stepped into the batter’s box. The crowd was on their feet. What was going to happen? The emotions were visible for everyone wearing Bethel gear.

On the first pitch, Dillon was plunked in the arm.

Anti-climactic, “but I got on base,” as Dillon noted.

“It’s kind of hard to describe it,” continued Andrew Dillon of his first appearance back. “It was a good feeling. The one-pitch at-bat ― I feel bad for the pitcher, to be honest. He didn’t know what was going on is what I was told, and he felt really bad after. So, I feel bad that he feels bad. It’s part of the game; I wasn’t upset. I know it wasn’t intentional.”

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Dillon has appeared in four games since, all at home. He started in left field last Saturday against Marian, where he recorded his first hit of the season. Dillon was expected to be the starting left fielder this year before the cancer diagnosis.

“To watch Andrew and his family deal with this has been a true inspiration,” Zartman said. “I think you start to see the power of God work in a lot of different ways. I would say Andrew is the epitome of someone who’s been dealt a hard life circumstance, but yet, he relishes and is grateful for every day.”

The sophomore is in week five of a six-week radiation treatment. He also has five more months of chemotherapy to go. While he’s lost most of his hair and is tired a lot more, Dillon feels like he’s 85-90% healthy.

“It’s so easy for people like us to see him playing and kind of miss how big of a deal it is what he’s doing,” Landkrohn said. “He’s been going to treatments at the hospital five days a week every morning, plus taking his treatments at home seven days a week. He still shows up to games, lifting and practices on top of that. What he’s doing is incredible."

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This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Bethel baseball's Andrew Dillon refuses to let brain cancer define him