TACOMA, Wash. — Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear baseball pants. 
 
Pacific Lutheran University baseball student-athlete Rowan Amann stepped up to the plate last week, donating lifesaving bone marrow after signing up and participating in the Get in the Game Registry Drive during D3Week during the spring of 2022.  
 
"I first heard about it when they (Get in the Game) came to our campus my sophomore year and a bunch of the athletes were asked to sign up. Our coach (Nolan Soete) was really big on it because he went through a similar process when he was in college battling cancer. So of course, we all joined the registry," said Amann. 
 
Amann's lifesaving donation hit a milestone for Get in the Game and the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation, becoming the organization's 1,300th successful bone marrow transplant. 
 
Founded in 2010 by former Villanova University Head Football Coach Andy Talley, the organization has helped bring awareness and lifesaving donors to blood cancer patients, including the three most common blood cancers— leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma. 
 
Patients with blood cancers have only a 30 percent chance of being a match with a family member which means most rely on an anonymous donor to get the needed lifesaving transplant. 
 
PLU first became involved in the registry and the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation in the spring of 2022 with Head Football Coach Brant McAdams and Head Baseball Coach Nolan Soete collaborating to run the first donor registration event during Division III Week that year. 
 
"When I first joined the registry, I didn't really think that I was going to be a match, they said it was a 1/200 chance or something. I was just doing it to do a good deed, but it was super exciting when I got the call. It was a great opportunity."

A senior infielder from Ashland, Oregon, Amann first found out at the end of last spring that he was a potential donor match. Testing confirmed that but his bone marrow transplant was delayed due to the health of the recipient. 
 
"When I first got the call it was before the baseball season so it was perfect, I was super excited to do it over the summer. As we went along and it got into the school year and then into the baseball season, I was a little more nervous that it would conflict with things that were going on. But like I said, my coach had been through this process before when he was in college, so he was super adamant about me going and doing it even if it meant missing practice and games."
 
It was a whirlwind week for Amann. The senior traveled with the team to southern California where he hit a double and drove in a run against California Lutheran University on March 22. Two days later in his hotel room, Head Coach Nolan Soete was injecting Amann with a few shots necessary for the procedure. Amann traveled back to Tacoma with the team before jetting off to Washington, D.C. for the peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) extraction procedure. Amann completed that five to six hour process and was then back in uniform on Friday with the Lutes for their Northwest Conference series against Whitman College. 
 
"This past week was pretty crazy. Obviously I was super excited that I was able to actually go to California, and that it didn't conflict with that. Then I came back and left for DC a couple days later and was there for about 48 hours, and then came back and had these games (Whitman Series) which was a lot, but it was a fun week. I got to play baseball and hopefully save a life."
 
Despite the low odds of being a match, the Lutes have had incredible success with their annual drive with Amann now the third Lute to successfully donate lifesaving bone marrow joining football players Erik Bainter '23 and Jai Alapai '24. 
 
"I'm personally very proud of him. It means a lot to me because I'm a bone marrow transplant survivor. I wouldn't be here today if my sister wasn't a match for me back in 2002. So in my opinion, Rowan is without a doubt a true hero. He put others before himself and is an inspiration to other potential donors," said Head Coach Nolan Soete. 
 
Having gone through the process, Amann encourages everyone who can to join the registry, which will be signing up donors on Wednesday at the University Center from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  
 
"I think someone should join the registry because it's a great opportunity to do something good. We talked about how the odds are really low to match with somebody, but if you do, it's a great opportunity to save a life. I like to think about that it if I had a family member or a kid who needed a donation, I would want the maximum chances for them to be able to match with somebody. I think you should do it too just grow the number of people who can donate."