Cancer stricken 13-month-old Shane O’Donnell rested comfortably in his father’s arms as the two made their way from the third-base dugout onto Kean University’s baseball field.

The Cougars – creating a makeshift path for the duo to walk through by forming two parallel lines – began a rhythmic clap and an accompanying chant of “Keep fighting Shane.”

The three words are a familiar chorus for Shane, who repeatedly watched an inspirational video containing them that student-athletes from 11 sports teams at the college made and posted to YouTube earlier this month.

“I played it for him in the hospital,” Shane’s father, Mike, who was a four-year starting shortstop at Kean University from 2001-04, said of the video. “He hears his name, he’s clapping and smiling and getting real excited.”

Emboldened by the rallying cry, which both Shane’s family and the Kean University baseball program have adopted, Mike O’Donnell – who is now the athletics director at Middlesex High School, where he built the Blue Jays into a state Group I baseball power – inched closer to home plate for a brief ceremony prior to Sunday’s game.

“Recently,” Kimberly DeRitter, the college’s director of sports information announced over the public address system at Jim Hynes ’63 Baseball Stadium, “the Kean family has joined an off-field battle for Shane O’Donnell. Even though he is just 1, Shane has already proven what a fighter he can be as he is battling Stage IV cancer.”

O’Donnell’s return to his alma mater came just two days after Shane was discharged from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia following a month-long stay during which he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma.

Mike and his wife, Tina, who gave birth to the couple’s third child just four days after Shane was admitted to the hospital on Jan. 19, brought Shane home on Friday, the first day the entire O’Donnell clan, including daughters Brielle, age 3, and newborn Alexa, were able to be together as one family under the same roof.

“This (return home),” O’Donnell said, “is just a stop off before the next round (of chemotherapy) and in preparation of other things to come.”

After two rounds of chemotherapy – multiple complications of which followed the first – Shane faces “a long road ahead,” O’Donnell said, “probably a 12- to 14-month process if everything goes well.”

At least two more rounds of chemotherapy in the hospital loom for Shane, whose body is riddled with tumors, as well as surgery to remove the largest growth, which is in his abdomen.

Shane returned home on a nasogastric feeding tube, which carries food to the stomach with the assistance of a pump. He receives a daily injection and will gradually be weaned off six medications. Shane is relearning to walk and regaining strength. Blood tests and visits to the ophthalmologist, who monitors the tumors behind Shane’s eyes, will become routine for the 13-month-old.

“To continue the chemotherapy treatments, he is going to have to keep gaining weight and growing and developing like a normal boy,” O’Donnell said, noting that Shane is thriving back home. “He’s enjoying being home, playing with his sisters. He’s a big brother, now, so he’s having fun with the baby. It’s nice to see him being a kid and not connected to wires at both sides of his crib. We’re kind of getting back in the swing of things.”

Shane’s presence at Sunday’s game against The College at Brockport – which came as a surprise to everyone, except Kean University head baseball coach Neil Ioviero, who O’Donnell tipped off with a text message the night before – served as an inspiration to the players, who break a team huddle before their games by yelling, “Shane!”

O’Donnell said he returned to his college alma mater during the baseball team’s season-opening homestand to get Shane “some fresh air” and as a way of showing thanks to the school-community for its support. In one month, a GoFundMe page has raised more than $87,000 for the O’Donnell family.

“He looks good and that’s reassuring,” Ioviero said of Shane. “It showed the hope that we are looking for. God choosing to do this miracle for (Shane) and (Mike) having that positive outlook and faith make the biggest difference. I really don’t think you can go about it any better than (Mike’s) going about it. He’s just very focused on what has to be done, just like he’d be on the field.”

The same amazing hands that O’Donnell displayed as a middle infielder cradled Shane as he walked with baby in arms on Sunday into Harwood Arena, where the Cougars gathered on the basketball court after finishing batting practice before Sunday’s game.

“We have baseball in the blood,” O’Donnell, in his usual calm demeanor, told the Cougars, who listened with rapt attention to the former star shortstop during a pre-game pep talk. “So, what we are going through, we relate to baseball in every which way. My little guy, he’s just in a slump right now. He’s going to get himself out of it.”

O’Donnell said he and Shane watched video highlights of the 2015 New York Mets and listened to “a lot of baseball songs” to help pass the time in the hospital. “He gets a kick out of it,” O’Donnell said.

Ioviero, who has remained in constant contact with O’Donnell since Shane’s diagnosis, called his former player’s visit “surreal.”

“You are texting (O’Donnell) and talking to him and just kind of imagining what he’s going through each and every day,” said Ioviero, the driving force behind the inspirational video and the college’s “Keep Fighting Shane” campaign, which includes the sale of blue and white “Shane Strong” bracelets as a fundraiser for the family.

“All I cared about today was getting him up here and seeing everybody. I’m sure it’s therapeutic for (O’Donnell) to be around people he’s comfortable with and in an environment he’s familiar with.”

O’Donnell said he has used his experience as a player and coach on the diamond to help Shane battle cancer.

“I was a baseball player, so I’ve always looked at life the same way,” O’Donnell said. “You are going to have ups and downs. You have to learn how to handle adversity. Basically, you’ve got to rise up to the occasion. This is definitely a rough time, but I just look at it like he’s in a slump. We’re going to bust out of this slump. We are not going to sit on our hands and wait around for the year to pass. We’ll do what we have to do to attack it, and that’s just kind of the mentality we’ve taken. It’s going to take some time and the help of some others, but we’ll get through it.

“The support of thousands and thousands of people have made it really feel a little more manageable,” said O’Donnell, noting that at 13 months old Shane may certainly not fully comprehend the magnitude of those rooting for him, but hearing his name chanted in the video and before Sunday’s game continues to lift his spirits.

“He hears his name,” O’Donnell said of the Keep Fighting Shane chant, “and he loves it.”