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Bend Clinches WCL Wild Card Spot

The Bend Elks (31-22) secured the West Coast League’s final playoff berth by clinching the wild card last night with a 10-2 home win over Klamath Falls while Wenatchee dropped an extra-inning affair with Yakima, 7-6.

The league’s first-round best-of-three playoff series will start Tuesday, August 12 at Bend’s Vince Genna Stadium and at Yakima Valley’s Yakima County Stadium.

Corvallis (35-18) will face division-rival Bend while West Division champion Bellingham (36-17) will matchup with East Division champion Yakima Valley (34-19).

This will be the fifth time that Corvallis and Bend have met in the first-round of the WCL playoffs with Corvallis winning series in 2008, 2009 and 2011 and Bend taking the 2010 series. Corvallis has won eight consecutive division titles and will be appearing in the WCL post-season for the eighth time.

Bellingham is making its third WCL playoff appearance. Yakima Valley is the first expansion team to win a division championship.

With Bend edging Wenatchee (30-23) for the league’s wild card playoff berth, the AppleSox are missing the WCL playoffs for the first time in the franchise’s storied history.

Games two of the first round (and games three if necessary) will be played at Goss Stadium in Corvallis and Joe Martin Field in Bellingham. Game two of each series is scheduled for Wednesday, August 13. If a game three is forced, it will be played on Thursday, August 14.

The winners of both series advance to the best-of-three West Coast League Championship Series (WCLCS) slated to start Saturday, August 16.