RACINE - Milwaukee Brewers' rookie third baseman Mat Gamel looked at the crowd Tuesday before cautiously stepping forward.

Gamel wasn't stepping up to home plate ready to bat, though.

He was moving toward a microphone at Knapp Elementary School, where he spoke Tuesday afternoon at an assembly about the importance of school.

The visit was part of the Brewers' S.C.O.R.E. program, an education-based initiative that focuses on and stands for school, community, opportunity, role models and excellence.

Gamel ran the half hour-long assembly by asking Knapp's more than 500 kindergartners through fifth-graders what S.C.O.R.E. stood for and what each element meant to them.

When he asked what the C in S.C.O.R.E. stood for, one student proudly belted out, "Cubs," to a sea of boos and laughter.

Fifth-grader Cedric Scales knew that C really stood for community and told those at the assembly, "I know our community isn't great now but it will be because of school."

For his answer, Cedric, 12, got a baseball.

"I've never been to a game so this is pretty exciting for me," he said. "I'd never met a Brewer before and he gave me a (high) five."

Aside from the few who got baseballs, all students got S.C.O.R.E. T-shirts, bookmarks and stickers, and 40 got four-packs of game tickets.

Gamel said Tuesday was his first S.C.O.R.E. event with the Brewers but that he worked a lot with kids in the minor leagues, especially at summer baseball camps.

Gamel said he remembers being on the other side of events like these. He once saw Atlanta Braves' third baseman Chipper Jones at a baseball camp.

"I remember listening to what he had to say," Gamel said. "It's great to hear people you look up to and see them as a person instead of just a baseball player."

Brewers' players, like Gamel, coaches and office staff, visited 30 elementary schools in Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington, Waukesha and Racine counties. Locally, the Brewers visited Knapp, 2701 17th St., and Jefferson Lighthouse Elementary School, 1722 W. Sixth St.

The Brewers notified area school districts who then selected schools for players to visit. Unified chose its two schools based on a first-come first-served basis, said Knapp Principal Gayle Titus.