Ryan Brennecke / The BulletinBend's Patrick Flynn (26) is greeted by his teammates after scoring against Kitsap last week in Bend. The Elks begin play in the West Coast League playoffs tonight at Corvallis.

Trey Watt could have lied. He could have played the role of hindsight-soothsayer and boasted about his preseason prediction of the Bend Elks’ history-making West Coast League season.

The Elks’ first-year head coach decided against it, however. Instead, he began laughing. No way could he have foreseen this kind of season, in which Bend captured the franchise’s first WCL division title in its 11th year as a member. The Elks’ goal, Watt noted, was simply to make the playoffs. To do so in record-breaking fashion “was completely unexpected.”

Then again, knowing what he knows now about this team — arguably the best in the club’s 16-year history — Watt said the path the Elks are on is exactly where this squad SHOULD be.

“Looking back on it now, this group from the get-go was wanting to play together, wanting to be around each other. Couldn’t separate them. Couldn’t get them away from each other,” Watt said last Tuesday, a day after the Elks clinched the division championship. “That’s what makes it so special.”

At 35-16, the Elks won the South Division crown and head into the West Coast League playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the four-team postseason field. Bend, which opens the first round at Corvallis (32-22) tonight before returning home to Vince Genna Stadium on Wednesday, set league records in doubles (117), batting average (.306), runs (360), total bases (811), RBIs (310), hits (578) and slugging percentage (.429). Elks infielder Tyler Davis broke the WCL doubles record (25) and either finished second this season with what would otherwise be league records (extra-base hits, 32) or narrowly missed out on WCL bests (total bases, 116; RBIs, 51).

Last Monday, with a walk-off 2-1 victory over Kitsap, the Elks secured the division title, which was announced to the crowd of 1,160 fans at Genna Stadium. The thrilling win was sweet; the division championship — over Corvallis, a division winner each of the past eight seasons, no less — drew a standing ovation from the Elks’ faithful.

“We’ve made a huge adjustment, I think,” Davis said. “We’ve come together as a team more than, I think, most teams in the WCL, to be honest. I’m really excited with this (division championship), because it hasn’t been done in Bend history for a while. Not only for the fans but for the players, it’s huge for us.”

But, Davis added, “we haven’t really won anything yet.” At the beginning of the season, the Elks set the bar high: WCL championship or bust. They were determined to bring the first league championship back to Bend — and they have not wavered from that expectation.

“I think since day one, we’ve known how realistic the possibilities of this team winning the league championship are,” said Elks infielder Cadyn Grenier, who scored 45 runs this summer, falling just short of the WCL record of 47. “Yes, now that we’ve got the South locked up and we know we’re going to the playoffs, it’s obviously getting closer. But beliefwise and having the confidence that we can do it, that hasn’t changed a bit. All year, I think it’s been a realistic goal for this team.”

Of course, winning the division title is meaningful for the Elks, but they are not satisfied. As Bend assistant coach Alan Embree said, “I believe in rings.”

Said Watt: “We have guys here who want to finish what they started.”

Since the season’s outset, Watt said, the Elks have followed an acronym that graces the front of their uniforms: Belief, Effort, No complaining, Dedication — BEND.

“That’s what this group has been,” Watt said. “They believe in each other. They have energy and effort every night. They never complain. And they’re dedicated to what they’re doing and what we’re doing.”

That buy-in has led to the Elks securing a spot in the WCL postseason for the second straight season — but for the first time as a division winner and the first time as the top seed. A ripple during the first half of the season has grown into a tidal wave, and Bend looks to cascade upon its opponents in the playoffs.

“We hope that we can continue on our record-breaking pace of offense and just put up a ton of runs on people like we have been,” Grenier said. The Oregon State-bound shortstop concedes that the Elks hit a bit of a skid recently, including a 1-5 stretch to close their lengthy road trip. But, Grenier continues, “we’re really hoping it starts to come around. And that’s why winning the division so early really helps us, because now we can just go out and relax and hopefully find a way to get back into that groove we were in. … I think we’re due to start hitting and playing like we did in the first half.”

Despite the road-trip hiccup, the Elks went 3-5 against East Division foes and, including their series against Wenatchee earlier in the schedule, finished the season 6-5 — all on the road — against the East, a victory for Watt, who does not believe his squad has lost any momentum heading into the playoffs. Davis agreed, citing the division-clinching win as a reference.

“I just saw (last Monday), a (Kitsap) pitcher was throwing a no-hit game in the seventh,” Davis said. “Cadyn and I were talking, and we weren’t worried one bit about what this team is capable of and what we could do and how one hit can change the whole end of a game. We know what we’re capable of. … We know what we can do and how much damage we can inflict on other teams.”

The standing ovation the Elks received last Monday was, as Davis described it, “unreal.” The jubilant faces of Elks fans, their celebration and excitement shown for this team, that was “everything we’ve been playing for,” according to Davis. Now, Bend is searching for another franchise first: a West Coast League championship.

“We’ve all meshed, and we get a standing ovation when we win the South Division,” Grenier said. “Hopefully we can win a championship back here in Bend. I’m assuming we’d get a standing ovation for that, too.”

Added Davis: “Maybe a parade.”

—Reporter: 541-383-0307, glucas@bendbulletin.com.