Woodland Hills West Ends Westlake Win Streak at 14

Westlake-Agoura and Woodland Hills West used their American Legion game Tuesday as a vehicle for a tuneup.

After racing through their respective divisions in first place, Westlake-Agoura of District 16 and Woodland Hills West of District 20 sought to fine-tune their lineups in an inter-district tussle at Westlake High in preparation for the upcoming playoffs.

Woodland Hills won, 9-5, snapping a 14-game winning streak for Westlake (21-2-3), which had gone 18 games without a loss.

“I found out what I wanted to find out, and that’s the basic premise,” Woodland Hills Coach Gary Gibson said. “We wanted to play a good team that would give us some fight. We got to them, but I’m sure if we ever get out of the district we’ll see them again.”

Gibson received a pleasant surprise from starting pitcher Carl McFadden, who had not pitched for three years but allowed only one run over four innings. With Woodland Hills leading, 3-0, in the second inning, McFadden helped his own cause when he hooked a solo home run over the left-field fence.

Westlake brought the score to 6-4 after five innings on Mike Lieberthal’s second double of the game, a two-run screamer over third base, but could get no closer.

“It ended in the fifth or sixth inning,” Westlake Coach Chuck Thompson said. “We played an extremely good team. . . . Some good can come of this. At this point, we’ve been cruising, but it’s not necessarily always been the caliber of team we played today.”

Westlake starter and loser Jeff Ritter (2-1) surrendered five runs in four innings. Pat Treend (6-1) pitched two scoreless innings to register the victory.

Paul Geller scored three runs and Jeff Marks had three hits to spark Woodland Hills (19-3).

Lieberthal, who is batting .443, had three of Westlake’s five hits.