Will Taylor of the Baseball Bat Bros raises his arms in celebration after a teammate makes an out against the NW Stars Tuesday night at Vince Genna Stadium in Bend. (Brian Rathbone/The Bulletin)

It’s not very often that the opposing teams are lining up to meet and take photos with Bend Elks players at Vince Genna Stadium. But then again, it is not every day that the Elks have a player as famous as Will Taylor playing catcher and batting fourth in the lineup.

Taylor is a social media star of the Baseball Bat Bros who has built a massive following of over 3.2 million fans across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter). A large portion of his content is shot at Vince Genna Stadium, where he routinely sends baseballs onto the Grocery Outlet roof beyond the left field fence, and at different baseball fields around Bend.

With the Elks short on catchers, he got the call to join the team on Tuesday night.

“I was kind of surprised,” said Taylor, who five years ago began posting videos on YouTube in which he tests and reviews all different types of baseball bats while using tracking technology to see how hard and how far the ball is hit. “But I’ve stayed fresh enough so I figured give it a shot. I didn’t expect that I would do great, but I think it turned out well.”

In the Elks’ 15-5 win over the Northwest Stars Tuesday night, Taylor nearly sent a ball over the right-field fence in his first swing of his first at-bat, but the ball sailed just foul. His first four at-bats ended with three ground outs and he reached on an error.

But on his final at bat, he got a pitch he liked and drove the ball into the left-center gap. With the smoky conditions in Bend, the outfielders could not track the ball. Taylor showed he still had some juice in his 32-year-old legs and legged out an inside-the-park home run, which ended the game in the eighth inning via the 10-run rule.

“I’m trying to get my switch-hitting back, so I was batting all left-handed,” said Taylor, who typically hits from the right side of the plate in his videos. “I finally got a good fastball that last at-bat and it found a gap and I was able to motor around the bases. I got a home run on the stat sheet, which I never thought I would get to say.”

It was also the first time he had played catcher in a competitive game in nearly a decade.

“I was really surprised how well the catching skill stayed with me, it felt like riding a bike,” Taylor said. “And the pitchers did a good job at hitting my mit. They made my life easier. But my hand is a little bit swollen.”

Not bad for a little midseason gimmick during the West Coast League’s All-Star Break to try to draw interest against a non-WCL opponent.

“We talked about it last year, about bringing him in and some YouTubers just to play in these exhibition games, just to get the crowd into it. It can be hard to get up for an exhibition game,” said Elks coach Allen Cox. “It started as a joke, then last night we were down to one catcher and we got word that Will would catch if we need him.”

Although he spent most of his childhood growing up in southwest Portland and went on to attend Beaverton High School before going to play baseball at the University of Utah, Taylor spent a few of his younger years living in Bend and attended St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School.

“I’ve always wanted to play in a Bend Elks jersey since I was a little kid,” Taylor said. “It is pretty fun to have my one-and-done go down like that.”

The Elks will play one more nonleague game against the Northwest Stars on Thursday before returning to WCL play in a three-game series against the Cowlitz Bears at Vince Genna Stadium on Friday.