JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Overcoming adversity is necessary for any athlete who wants to achieve goals. However, for one University of North Florida baseball player, that adversity had nothing to do with the game.

UNF freshmen right fielder Matt Ridilla, 19, is just weeks away from his first game as a member of the school's baseball team.

Ridilla has been eagerly preparing for his first action on the field, after beating cancer off the field. It's a feat he might not have accomplished had it not been for a physical exam one year ago.

"Before school started, we had practice for a little bit. Then we had physicals and during physicals, Joe Allen said that he found maybe a little bit of a lump," Ridilla said.

The lump that Allen found turned out to be testicular cancer.

"The most common kind of cancer in folks between age 16 and 35 is testicular cancer, and Matt's just trying to talk about it and be open about it because he wants people to know it can affect anybody," Allen said.

"They said it's getting younger and younger, the ages. So that I needed to get surgery, and that it was the fastest growing type that they had," Ridilla said. "By that time it was about a centimeter and a half. By the time I had surgery, it was already 2-3 centimeters. That was just a week and a half later."

A month after surgery, Ridilla was already training and closer than ever to finally playing for the Ospreys.

"We're hoping this thing … this is the end of it, and that he can keep on playing. But, he's faced some tough roads already. I'm sure he's a guy that's going to be a good player for us," said UNF baseball coach Dusty Rhodes.

Inside of one of the UNF baseball locker rooms every locker has a quote on it. Ridilla's says, "Set your goals. Get rid of things that keep you from making them."

"If I didn't play baseball out of high school, or if I wouldn't have gone to college to play baseball, they never would have caught it because I never would have gotten a physical," Ridilla said.

With one goal down, Ridilla said he has a new goal.

"Do what I can so we can get a championship," Ridilla said.