Wolf first baseman Kory Score takes a break while waiting for a pitching change. (John Fisken photo)
Coupeville’s new clean-up hitter pauses for a selfie.
Soccer purists like to call their sport “the beautiful game,” but Kory Score is pretty sure they’re mistaken.
For the Coupeville High School junior, baseball is now, and has always been, the real winner when it comes to sports achieving true beauty.
“What I enjoy about baseball is the fact that it’s the most beautiful sport to watch, unlike basketball or football, where everyone is bashing on each other and is all sweaty,” Score said. “Baseball has become part of my life and has found a special part in my heart that I like to call home.
“I’ve grown up to love the sport because of all the fun I can have with all the guys I’ve played with and also how fun it is to just win.”
Score, who currently mans first base for the Wolves, picked up the game at age five “because my mom basically pushed me into the sport.”
And, while he’s played other sports over the years, with stints as a basketball and football player (he’s considering a return to the gridiron in the fall), the diamond has always captivated him.
He presents a tall target at first, which helps his fellow infielders greatly when they’re firing on the move, but Score would like to pack on a little more muscle to his lanky frame at some time.
“My strengths are definitely out in the field, working the ball defensively, as I’m more of a taller, thinner, and quicker first baseman than most,” Score said. “I’ve got a little power and muscle behind me, but that’s an area that I’d like to work on that ties into batting.
“My hitting is good and I can hit the ball farther than most,” he added. “But if I put a little more meat on my bones, just imagine how much farther that ball could go.”
A very-young Wolf squad sits at 3-6, but have been competitive in most of their losses.
They are atop the 1A Olympic League currently, having savaged Port Townsend 9-0 in the only league game played this season.
“My goals for this season are to have fun and win, win, win,” Score said. “I’ve always loved to win, so making this new coach (Marc Aparicio) proud and possibly going to state his first year as a coach would be amazing.”
Away from the diamond, he enjoys working out and “just trying to get outside as much as possible on this rainy Island.”
A “Star Wars” fan (“nothing surpasses them”) who can often be found on his XBox or listening to music by bands such as Bullet For My Valentine and Miss May I, Score picks chemistry and pre-calculus as his favorite school subjects.
“I want to move on in the future to major in astronomy because the stars and everything out there just fascinate me.”
Score has spent much of his life on the move, bouncing from Coupeville to Minnesota (he’s lived in Blooming Prairie and Owatonna at separate times), back to Coupeville, to Oak Harbor and once again back to Central Whidbey.
Having rejoined many of his friends from elementary and middle school in time for his junior year at CHS, he hopes to finish his high school days as a Wolf, with an eye on garnering a college baseball scholarship before he’s done.
Wherever he’s been, one woman has always been there for him, and he greatly appreciates everything she has meant to him.
“Definitely the person that’s made the biggest impact on me throughout my entire life is my mom,” Score said. “She’s shown me how strong she is and how much of a role model a girl can be to a boy.
“My mom has never stopped fighting for me and my brother and sister and always pushes through to give us the best life we can have and currently do have,” he added. “The main thing I’ve learned from my mom is to never quit; giving up isn’t the Score way!”
