Attend a Bend Elks game at Vince Genna Stadium this summer and there is a solid chance to see a local pitcher on the mound. Simon Lemke and Finn Edwards will be spending their summers pitching for their local college summer-league wood-bat team. Lemke’s in his second summer with the Elks, while Edwards is getting his first crack at West Coast League batters.

“Getting to see all these bigger guys when I was younger was the coolest thing,” Edwards said. “I always wanted to be an Elk, so when I got the opportunity, of course I was going to say yes.”

Lemke, a 2023 Mountain View High School graduate, just wrapped up his freshman year at Columbia Basin College in Pasco, Wash., where he turned in a stellar first season. He was a first-team all-Northwest Athletic Conference pitcher and was voted a second-team All-American by the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings Pacific Association.

The early taste of the difference of pitching against high school batters compared with college hitters helped jumpstart his college career on the mound.

“When I got there I felt like I was experienced enough to know what I was doing because I knew how to throw to college hitters,” Lemke said. “When you make a mistake in college, more times than not you are going to get punished. I learned to always have a plan on the mound and being confident. If you are up there looking scared, hitters are going to feed off that.”

This summer, Lemke has been one of the Elks’ most reliable arms out of the bullpen. In six appearances this summer, the right-hander is tied for the team lead with three wins, while striking out 14 batters in 18 innings in WCL play.

“It just shows that I have improved a lot since last summer,” Lemke said. “The coaches have a lot of trust in me, which is a good feeling. I’m more confident, I’d say. I’ve proved myself a little bit more. I don’t feel like an outsider, I feel like I fit in a lot more.”

Edwards finds himself in a similar situation that Lemke was in a year ago, making the jump to the WCL fresh after graduating high school.

The 2024 Summit graduate, like many young baseball players in Bend, spent his summers watching the Elks play at Vince Genna Stadium, so when the offer came to play for the Elks, he jumped at the chance.

As one of the squad’s youngest players, Edwards has made two appearances and pitched in two innings. But at least he is finally back on the mound after barely being able to pitch this past spring for the Storm.

After pitching in San Diego during Summit’s spring break trip, the right arm of one of Oregon’s top high school prospects wasn’t feeling right. An MRI showed a partly strained Ulnar Collateral Ligament in his elbow, which can be a devastating injury that can require Tommy John Surgery, a common surgery with a lengthy rehab.

Edwards avoided surgery but was unable to pitch the rest of the spring for the Storm. He was still a first-team all-Intermountain Conference designated hitter.

“It wasn’t as bad as I initially thought it was going to be,” Edwards said. “I just made sure I did everything right and the extra work paid off. I was able to throw the last month of the season but wasn’t able to pitch. I was still able to hit but it was not how I wanted to contribute. I wasn’t able to do everything I could. My arm is my biggest asset.”

Edwards will pitch for Iowa Western Community College, one of the top junior colleges in the country for baseball. Initially, Edwards was committed to pitch at Oregon State, but the injury cooled the interest from the Beavers so he decommitted and went a different route, one in which he would be able to make up for lost time this past spring.

“I realized that I need to play, especially after being injured,” Edwards said. “The D-1 stuff was cool with the big, flashy names, but I maybe wasn’t going to play as much. I really wanted to make sure I was going somewhere I was going to play and be able to compete. I wanted to go somewhere that was going to be right for me and was a high-level. I know I’m a high-level athlete, I know I’m going to see tough batters and have tough outings. And that is what I want.”

Bend Elks in third place

Through the first month of the season, the Bend Elks were in third place of the South Division Standings with a 13-11 West Coast League record going into Saturday night’s games, trailing only the division-leading Corvallis Knights (19-5) and the Portland Pickles (15-8).

Bend has won five of its eight series thus far this season, with a sweep of Springfield earlier in the season.

The WCL is broken up into two 27-game halves. The first-half and second-half division winners clinch a spot in the eight-team playoffs. Then the two teams from each division with the best overall records secure the final four playoff spots.

The Elks will play their next WCL series on the road against the Bellingham Bells.

— Bulletin staff report