Bend Bucks players Troy Viola, left, and Jake Farnsworth have ties to Central Oregon high school programs. Viola, a shortstop for the Bucks, played for Summit’s 2016 state championship team, while Farnsworth, a pitcher, helped La Pine to the Class 3A state title earlier this month.(Andy Tullis/Bulletin photo)

Earlier this month, Jake Farnsworth scored a run on a passed ball in the Class 3A state championship game, helping La Pine to its first state baseball title.

Three days later, the left-handed pitcher — and newly minted high school grad — was the starting pitcher for the Bend Elks.

After that, is it hard to come back to earth and start an entirely new season, this time with the Bend Bucks, a travel team composed of high school and college players from Central Oregon?

Not at all, Farnsworth insists.

“You just keep it going — you don’t think too highly of yourself just because you did something great,” Farnsworth, 17, said last week. “In the 3A level, there’s not a lot of big-time schools, like in the higher (classifications). But when you step on the field for a Bucks game, everything changes. Every game is a big game. The high school championship game was obviously a great experience, but it’s like every game is that way now.”

Farnsworth’s stats show he is still dialed in: Through nine games with the Bucks, he has pitched 11 innings, allowing one run while striking out 17. He also leads the team with a .467 batting average and eight RBIs.

The Bucks, who are an affiliate of the Bend Elks and play home games at Vince Genna Stadium, do not compete in a league but have a 32-game schedule against a variety of travel teams in the Northwest.

“It’s all freelance,” Bucks head coach James Cordes said of putting together the team’s schedule. “Starting in about January, we put it together between myself and Michael Hirko, the GM of the Elks. We put it out there through Twitter, emails, text messages, just relationships with different travel teams.

“We play a number of 21U, 19U and 18U teams. So just piecing together the schedule with other teams that are looking for games as well.”

Cordes said that 40 local players tried out for the team, and the final 20-man roster includes players from Bend High, Summit, Crook County, Mountain View, La Pine, Redmond and Ridgeview. The majority are like Farnsworth, current high school students or recent grads. But several, including shortstop Troy Viola, have already played at least one year of college ball. Viola, who was a member of Summit’s 2016 state championship team and played for two years at Glendale Community College in California, will join the San Jose State baseball team in the fall. He said that San Jose State players live “the high life” — by which he means they do not have to ride the bus to every away game, and they do not wash their own jerseys. But that all starts after this summer.

“It’s some of the best talent in Bend, so I was excited to come play with them last year,” said Viola, 20, decided to play for the Bucks in 2017 after he did not receive an offer from the Elks. “It was important for me to come back, I wanted to see my family. And I’m getting live at-bats, and I’m having a lot of fun here in front of the hometown fans.”

So far, Viola is hitting .368 with three doubles, two home runs and seven RBIs. Viola says he has changed as a player since he played in the Class 5A championship game two years ago.

“I’ve definitely matured, that’s for sure,” Viola said. “I’ve gotten a little bit bigger, but I’ve gotten smarter. My baseball IQ has gone up by quite a bit just from when I was younger. I have a better approach at the plate, and I kind of have a couple things that I can take into the field with me as well, that I’ve learned at Glendale that I didn’t necessarily know when I was a senior in high school.”

And while two years of playing at the community college level may not seem like a lot, it is enough to make Viola a veteran for the Bucks.

“It’s strange, for sure,” Viola said. “It’s weird. They may not have been on varsity when I was at Summit, and now I see them, and they’re seniors or just graduated. I don’t feel like I’ve been gone for two years, but I have. And it’s great. I love coming back and being able to be a leader for these guys who are younger. And I think I can bring to the table some baseball smarts or IQ, things that I’ve seen in college that they can take with them.”

Without league standings or playoffs to aim for, Cordes said he and the team have to set other goals for themselves.

“It’s funky, because you’re not necessarily playing for anything, and if you’re not playing for anything, as a team, the players tend to default to playing for themselves,” said Cordes, who is in his second year of coaching the Bucks. “And it’s summer ball, and lots of times that’s kind of the dynamic. So last year, our goal was to go .500. We were really young, and we ended one game under .500. This year, with a 32-game schedule, I told the kids, our goal is to win 20 games. That’s what would like to do, just to give us something to kind of chase, so sort of goal as a team to chase.”

Farnsworth, who also played on the team last year, said he has already seen an improvement this season. The Bucks are off to a 5-4 start this season.

“We started off a little slow” last year, Farnsworth said. “I think it was because we didn’t know each other, and this year there are a lot of guys that played last year, so we are more comfortable playing with each other. Like bunt coverage on first and third, guys running and stuff. We’re more comfortable throwing the ball around, instead of being hesitant when we’re throwing the ball.”

And like his coach and Viola, Farnsworth said he just wants to see individuals improve this summer before he joins a community college program in the fall.

“I’m hoping to get more experience and more baseball knowledge, and hopefully we can come out with a winning record,” Farnsworth said. “Just be competitive.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0305, vjacobsen@bendbulletin.com