Westlake Uses Big Bats to Clinch Playoff Spot

THOUSAND OAKS — There is rarely fear of a power outage with the Westlake High baseball team around.

The Warriors, whose lineup boasts home-run capability from top to bottom, belted three more Wednesday in a 16-7 Marmonte League rout of Newbury Park at Westlake.

With the victory, Westlake clinched the league’s third and final automatic berth in the Southern Section playoffs, which begin next week. The Warriors (15-7-1, 8-4-1 in league play) have not made a postseason appearance since 1990.

Newbury Park (13-12, 5-8) saw a five-game league winning streak end along with its slim hopes for an at-large berth in the Division III playoffs.

The Panthers’ streak had been fueled in part by strong pitching and excellent defense, but Wednesday the Warriors got to a trio of pitchers and took advantage of five Newbury Park errors.

“They whacked the heck out of the ball and we weren’t there defensively,” Newbury Park Coach Chad Scott said.

“We weren’t ready mentally from the time the first pitch was thrown.”

Newbury Park starts two seniors, two juniors, four sophomores and a freshman. Westlake starts two seniors, five juniors, one sophomore and one freshman and the slight edge in experience showed.

The Panthers held their only lead, 1-0, after half an inning.

That evaporated in the bottom of the inning when Kevin Howard, Westlake’s No. 3 hitter, hit a two-run home run.

The Warriors increased their lead to 3-1 in the first when Chris Parker walked, moved to third on a single by Mikey Brin and scored when Brin’s hit rolled under the glove of Panther right fielder Jake Farrel.

Westlake moved to a 5-1 lead in the third inning on a two-run home run by Dave Williamson, before Newbury Park pulled to within 5-3 in the fourth on a two-run home run by Jon Wilson.

From there it was all Westlake, as the Warriors produced three hits and four runs in the fourth and four hits and four runs in the fifth to take a 13-3 lead.

For Westlake, Scott Dragicevich had two triples and a double and Howard had four runs batted in.