Taylor Elman does not enjoy sitting.

During his senior year of high school at Creighton Preparatory School in Omaha, Neb., the current Bend Elk battled through mononucleosis and appendicitis yet still earned all-state baseball honors as a pitcher and third baseman while leading his team to the 2012 Class A (large-school) state championship.

This past spring was a different story, though. As a freshman at Creighton University, also in Omaha, Elman pitched in just 22 innings, posting a 4.50 earned-run average in 13 appearances. Like many ballplayers making the jump from high school to college ball, Elman, for the first time in his baseball career, spent more time watching than playing.

“It was tough,” admits Elman, who has been solid this summer for the Elks of the summer collegiate West Coast League, going 4-2 in 10 starts while sporting a 3.33 ERA. “I’m used to being one of the top dogs. This summer has been all about getting innings, getting experience, and getting back to being one of those guys.”

While the WCL boasts a number of experienced small-college standouts — Bend first baseman Derek Dixon of NCAA Division III George Fox University in Newberg, for example — and junior college players looking for four-year opportunities, the league is primarily a developmental circuit for Division I programs.

Players like Elman, who saw limited playing time last spring, are usually champing at the bit to play during the summer and ideally put themselves into a position to compete for a starting job back at college in the fall.

“I’m just loving that I’m playing every day,” says Bend outfielder Cullen O’Dwyer, a sophomore-to-be at Arizona State.

Highly recruited out of Albuquerque, N.M. — he was selected out of high school in the 39th round of the 2012 Major League Baseball draft by the Atlanta Braves — O’Dwyer had just nine at-bats for the Sun Devils this past spring. Over the summer, though, he has emerged as one of the Elks’ top power hitters, entering this weekend’s series against Walla Walla with a team-high five home runs while hitting .260 with 25 RBIs in 42 games.

“When you’ve been playing your whole life, it’s tough,” O’Dwyer says about being a reserve for the first time last spring. “But I still picked up a lot. It’s a learning experience.”

Over the years, the Elks have developed a reputation for helping turn inexperienced underclassmen into everyday contributors. Regionally, former Oregon State infielders Tyler Smith and Ryan Dunn both posted solid summers in Bend — Smith in 2010 and Dunn in 2011 — that helped transform them from role players to key cogs in the Beavers’ lineups. Darian Ramage, a St. Mary’s College infielder who played in Bend last summer, had just 15 at-bats for his college team in spring 2012. After a season with the Elks, in which he batted .291 over 47 games, Ramage became a starter for St. Mary’s this year and hit .261 with 41 hits in 51 games, the fourth-best mark on the team.

“That freshman year is definitely harder on some guys,” says ex-Elk standout Mike Benjamin, who came to Bend between his freshman and sophomore years at Arizona State. “It’s just a matter of accepting the fact that the guys ahead of you are better and they’ve been there. That freshman year, you’re trying to learn what you can do every day to better yourself, and when you do get that opportunity in a game, you better be ready.”

After appearing in just 12 games for the Sun Devils as a freshman in 2011, Benjamin spent the summer in Bend, where he hit .275 in 138 at-bats. Benjamin went on to hit .322 in his sophomore year and .335 in his junior season for ASU — leading the Sun Devils in batting average both years — and this past June he was drafted in the 13th round by the Colorado Rockies.

“I took that summer really serious with the goal being that I was going to come back (to ASU) and play (more innings) my sophomore year,” says Benjamin, who is now playing professionally for the Tri-Cities (Wash.) Dust Devils, the Rockies’ short-season Single-A affiliate. “That’s a critical time (between a college player’s freshman and sophomore seasons). A beneficial time.”

Elman, who aims to be one of Creighton’s weekend pitching starters next spring, says he is already experiencing the benefits of consistent mound time with the Elks.

“My breaking ball’s improved a lot this summer,” says Elman, who has pitched a team-high 51 1⁄3 innings so far this season for the Elks. “I threw it quite a bit during high school, but I lost it over the spring. And working with (16-year big-league veteran and Bend assistant coach) Alan Embree has been pretty incredible. … From him I’ve learned a lot about working hitters and working counts.

“We’ll see what happens,” Elman adds, “when I get back to Omaha.”

Elks need one win to reach playoffs

The Bend Elks host the Walla Walla Sweets for a three-game series at Vince Genna Stadium starting today to wrap up the regular season, and they need just one win to secure a spot in the West Coast League playoffs. Tonight’s game starts at 6:35. The Elks are in second place in the WCL’s South Division, ahead of third-place Medford; the top two teams in the WCL’s two divisions make the playoffs. Medford won its final regular-season game on Thursday night. If Bend loses all three of its remaining games, Medford and Bend would be tied, and the Rogues would reach the playoffs via a tiebreaker. If the Elks make the playoffs, they would start a three-game series with the Corvallis Knights in Bend on Tuesday.

Elks

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WCL standings

Through Thursday’s games:

North Division W-L

Wenatchee 28-22

Walla Walla 28-22

Bellingham 25-26

Victoria 21-30

Kelowna 17-34

South Division W-L

Corvallis 34-17

Bend 30-21

Medford 30-24

Klamath Falls 26-25

Cowlitz 25-26

Kitsap 17-34e_SClBElks standing out

Player of the week: Zach Close, a graduate of Crook County, has seven hits, four runs scored and three RBIs in his past seven games, providing the Elks with a spark from the leadoff spot in the batting order.

Pitcher of the week: Bend relief pitcher David Murillo recorded two saves over the past eight days, working out of a bases-loaded jam in the Elks’ 10-6 victory over Cowlitz on Aug. 1 before preserving a 2-1 road win against Bellingham on Aug. 3.

Game of the week: Bend edged Bellingham 2-1 on Aug. 3 behind a strong start from Garrett Anderson. The 6-foot-3 left-hander scattered seven hits over 5 2⁄3 innings while allowing just one run. e_SClB