SAN DIEGO — “Like right there, it started pushing into my eye,” said 9-year-old Weston Ward.

He was describing a rare sinus infection that started in June 2022, an illness that sent him to the hospital and kept him there for two weeks.

“I didn’t think it was going to be that bad when I got it. I just thought my eye was hurting. I really didn’t think anything else,” said Weston.

“For me as a mom, that was the hardest part, just knowing there was nothing I could do to help him with the pain,” said his mother, Melissa Ward.

The boy was immediately sent to emergency surgery.

“If it had gone much longer, it could have severed the nerve in his eye, so, he would have lost his eyesight,” his mother explained

During his recovery, the 4th grader watched a lot of television, in turn, falling in love with the Little League World Series.

“I liked seeing all the good defensive plays and all that,” said Weston. “I did do a tiny bit of commentary because it was just super cool.”

Little did he know, something a lot cooler would come next. 

While his mother Melissa was signing Weston up for little league baseball, she came across a contest put on by Ballpark Buns. It was a chance for a player and their family to win a free trip to the Little League World Series.

Weston won.

“I was in disbelief, I couldn’t believe it. I was like — wait, this is fake right?” Weston reccounted.

The Ward’s traveled from California to Pennsylvania to eventually watch California win in historic fashion.

“That was crazy, it was so loud,” said Weston.

When FOX 5 asked Weston if he thought he’d be playing little league baseball a year after almost losing his eyesight, he answered “not in a billion years.”