If life were baseball, Corey Walker would’ve already struck out. The 15-year-old right handed pitcher has been cut from four different teams in the last two years and until this May, hadn’t participated in an organized baseball game since little league.

Yet Walker, fueled by a passion for the game and the motivation to prove naysayers wrong, is still swinging for the fences — this time trying to stick on the roster of the Cary Bulls, the winningest junior legion team in the state.

Under normal circumstances, Walker wouldn’t be playing for the Bulls. He’s a student at Middle Creek, where there’s a scholastic summer league team to latch onto during these months.

But after being cut from the summer league team for the second straight year, Walker was a baseball vagabond, searching for a team that would give him and his right arm — which he was told didn’t throw hard enough — a chance.

Looking for a fresh start, Walker came to the Bulls’ tryouts with friend Tyler Lapp.

On the first day, coach Ron Powell tested the same things that had kept Walker from landing a roster spot at Middle Creek — arm strength, running speed and bat speed. The next day, they scrimmaged.

“He came out and when you look at his body, you just say ‘this kid’s not a baseball player,’” Powell said, but his opinion soon changed. “Well, he came out and got nine straight batters out in the scrimmage.”

Powell still didn’t know if he wanted to keep Walker on his team. He asked the Cary Colts legion team if they would take him. They weren’t interested in adding another pitcher. Walker’s future was up in the air.

The deal

“I’ll keep you on the team till June 12,” Powell said, hoping to find some compromise with his right-handed reliever. “That’s when the high school summer league can officially begin. Hopefully by that time we can get you 8-12 innings pitched and go to your coach and say ‘you know, this guy’s done fairly well, just give him a chance, let him play for you.’”

That sounded good enough to Walker. But the Bulls soon learned the only thing more difficult than Walker finding a team, was trying to score off him. Even now, after 17 and 2/3 innings pitched, Walker has yet to allow a run, earned or unearned, in a Bulls uniform.

He also has struck out 11 batters and hasn’t walked a single batter.

“He just throws strikes and gets outs,” fellow pitcher Max Povse said.

As the outs piled up, Walker grew in the eyes of his teammates, and it became near impossible for Powell to let go of his right-handed reliever.

“We brought him out here and the players fell in love with him. He's a great kid, they like him, he’s a good teammate.” Powell said. “It’s amazing, but he’s one of us now.”

An underdog who couldn’t make the cut elsewhere was welcomed and appreciated for his guts — and for the first time, his skill.

“I was quiet at first, I didn’t go around talking to people other than the people I knew,” Walker said. But soon, he’d become the team’s most popular player.

“Big Tex,” Povse calls him. It’s short for “Walker, Texas Ranger.”

“I like it better than some of the nicknames I’ve had,” Walker said. “I’d rather be on this team than Middle Creek’s team by far.”

One more “cut”

Powell said that in the past, his most talented teams don’t win legion championships. Instead, the ones where individual players toss aside their personal goals for the good of everyone bring home the hardware. Perhaps that’s the niche Walker best fits.

He’s been a rallying point for his fellow Bulls players. On a roster that Powell said has “about seven or eight future Division I players,” Walker makes everyone else forget their stats of the day or how many scouts are in the stands.

When he’s on the mound, the attention shifts, and players root from the dugout for the next three outs.

“This is a guy that’s just like everybody in America,” Powell said. “He just wants a chance to play and a place to play.”

“He is a perfect example of how baseball is the vehicle, not the destination. Walker is using this as a vehicle to get self-esteem, self-worth and belong to a group.”

On June 23, the Bulls will whittle their 22-man roster down to the legion minimum of 20, placing two on the inactive list.

But don’t expect Walker to be “cut” again. He’s found a home with the Bulls.

“Corey won’t be one of them,” Powell said. “We’re not letting him go. He’s too important to our team ... he’s money in the bank. You can count on three outs.”