Westlake Lays Claim to Share of Its 1st Title in Baseball : High school baseball: Todd Preston, battling an 0-for-17 slump, foils Thousand Oaks’ strategy in 4-3 Warrior victory.

Todd Preston’s season somehow managed to reach a new low after 6 1/2 long, embarrassing innings Wednesday in Westlake High’s 4-3 win over Thousand Oaks in a Marmonte League baseball game.

In front of an overflow crowd at Westlake High, Preston had committed three errors that led to two unearned runs. His season-long hitting slump, the latest an 0-for-17 streak, left him batting .189.

He reached rock bottom when Thousand Oaks Coach Jim Hansen ordered two intentional walks in the bottom of the seventh to get at Preston’s flailing bat. But Preston responded with a single past a drawn-in infield that broke a 3-3 tie and guaranteed Westlake (20-1 overall, 9-0 in league play) at least a tie for its first league title.

“They didn’t think I was a very good hitter, and that upset me,” Preston said. “I wanted to show them I could hit.”

Preston did that when he sent a 2-2 pitch from Scott Barkman (4-2) bouncing through the hole between third base and shortstop to score Tim Falsken. Falsken had led off with a single that got past center fielder Brent Christenson--whose two-run home run in the top of the inning had tied the score--and enabled Falsken to reach third.

Hansen ordered the second intentional walk to Mike Lieberthal, who is hitting .535 with a state-best 13 home runs and 37 runs batted in. Hansen also intentionally walked Keith Hess, Westlake’s cleanup hitter, who has six home runs.

“We didn’t want Lieberthal to beat us, and the next kid is a good hitter too,” Hansen said. “We wanted to work our way down the lineup, and we knew (Preston) was struggling.”

Preston answered with his 11th hit in 54 at-bats, and it saved an erratic Warrior performance. Westlake, ranked No. 1 in the Southern Section 5-A Division and No. 2 in USA Today’s national poll, committed five errors. Lieberthal struck out twice, only the fourth and fifth times in 71 at-bats. And Eby, a senior left-hander who improved to 8-0 and set a school record for wins in a season, struggled despite allowing only one earned run.

Westlake gave Eby a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Rob Neal and Falsken hit consecutive singles and Lieberthal was intentionally walked to load the bases. Hess’ groundball was booted by Bryan Corey at shortstop, allowing Neal to score, and Dave Monheim drove in Falsken with a sacrifice fly.

Westlake extended its lead to 3-0 in the fourth. Sean Howard singled, stole second, moved to third on Rick Wolters’ single, and scored on Neal’s groundout.

Thousand Oaks (9-5, 6-3) threatened in the fourth when two Westlake errors put Lancers on second and third with two out. But Wolters, Westlake’s second baseman, made a backhanded stop of Ryan Kritscher’s grounder up the middle and threw Kritscher out at first to save at least one run.

“That was the key play of the game,” Westlake Coach Rich Herrera said.

Thousand Oaks cut its deficit to 3-1 with a run in the sixth. Brett Herman singled with one out and went to second on Preston’s error of a groundball hit by Corey. Kritscher singled to load the bases and Barkman walked to force in a run.

In the seventh, Preston’s third error at third base allowed David Skeels to reach base with one out. Christenson, who missed a game last week because of pneumonia, followed with a home run to left field that tied the score, 3-3.

The blast merely allowed Preston to end his slump in the seventh.

“He’s been hitting the ball hard,” Herrera said. “I thought it was about time for some of the balls to fall in someplace, and it happened.”

Neal and Falsken each had two hits for Westlake, which leads Thousand Oaks by three games with three league contests left.