ANAHEIM, Calif. (CNS) — The Los Angeles Angels honored Cypress High School science teacher and coach Susan Fried as their honorary bat girl for Sunday's interleague game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Angel Stadium.

Fried has been teaching for 23 years. Her students have included Angels infielder David Fletcher and Mandi Ortiz, the team's marketing and entertainment coordinator. Ortiz nominated Fried to be the team's honorary bat girl.

Fried was diagnosed with breast cancer in September. She began teaching a unit on cancer the day after she was diagnosed. After one day of trying to teach the unit, while holding her news in, she decided that keeping it a secret wasn't going to do anyone any good and invited her students and community on the journey with her to provide them with the most direct lesson for the cancer unit possible.

Fried posted updates on social media and around the city. Her message to women was to self-check and follow up on questions they have with a doctor.

Fried learned in the winter the tumor was continuing to grow and for her birthday, Dec. 29, she asked her doctor for the only gift that mattered — to remove the tumor.

Fried underwent double mastectomy surgery on her birthday. Follow-up appointments have shown clear margins and she continues her chemotherapy treatments to make certain the cancer hasn't traveled to other parts of her body.

Each of the 30 Major League Baseball teams selects an honorary bat girl in support of MLB's annual effort each Mother's Day to highlight extraordinary efforts to support the fight against breast cancer.

MLB began the honorary bat girl program in 2009 to support the annual "Going To Bat Against Breast Cancer" initiative.

During games on Mother's Day since 2006, players wear specially designed pink caps. Uniforms feature the MLB breast cancer awareness logo, with the symbolic pink ribbon, on the left chest.

A matching pair of pink socks is optional for every player.

Many players use pink bats. Pink Louisville Slugger bats are stamped with the MLB breast cancer awareness logo. Players can also wear pink batting gloves, footwear, wrist/elbow/leg guards and catcher's equipment.

Louisville Slugger will donate proceeds from the sale of the pink bats to Susan G. Komen and Stand Up To Cancer.

The pink ribbon also appears on the bases at each stadium and the official dugout lineup cards. MLB will donate all of its royalties from sales of licensed apparel with the MLB pink ribbon logo to Stand Up To Cancer and Susan G. Komen.

Stand Up to Cancer is an effort to accelerate innovative cancer research that will get new therapies to patients quickly.

Susan G. Komen describes itself as the world's largest nonprofit source of funding for the fight against breast cancer.

On Father's Day, Major League Baseball seeks to raise awareness about prostate cancer and raises funds for research to fight the disease.