Westlake Dream a Nightmare

Duck. Take cover. The old Westlake High showed up again, at the worst possible time.

Uninspiring losses were supposed to be a thing of the past, but the Warriors were routed by Placentia El Dorado, 9-0, in the Southern Section Division III baseball championship game Saturday at Dodger Stadium.

The top-seeded Warriors (25-7-1) played no better than the dreary, overcast weather, allowing five unearned runs and scraping together only three hits as El Dorado won its second title in three seasons.

Nick McMillan (9-1), a 6-foot-4 right-hander, struck out nine and walked one while earning the first shutout of his career for No. 3-seeded El Dorado (26-5).

“We knew we were going to have to get into a battle of bats with them, but their pitcher shut us down,” said Westlake senior Tyler Adamczyk, who grounded out twice and struck out.

The Warriors lost in disheartening fashion in the 1998 final, allowing seven runs in the seventh inning of a 9-3 loss to South Hills.

Trouble came right away this time.

Shortstop Ryan McCarthy’s overthrow allowed leadoff batter J.D. McCauley to get to second base, and the Golden Hawks scored three unearned runs in the first.

El Dorado added four runs in the third as starter Justin Blaine (10-3) walked the bases loaded with one out. The killing blow, a two-run single by No. 9 hitter Chris Wessel, gave the Golden Hawks a 7-0 lead.

“We didn’t get off to a good start and just crumbled from there,” Westlake Coach Chuck Berrington said. “I know our team’s a lot better than that.”

Adamczyk, who has signed with California and is expected to be selected in the first three rounds of Tuesday’s amateur draft, told Berrington before the game that he could pitch only an inning or two.

Adamczyk, who leads the Warriors with 70 innings pitched and is 7-0, threw six innings in a 7-2 semifinal victory over Norte Vista on Tuesday.

“It’s just tired,” he said of his right arm. He played first base against El Dorado.

Blaine struggled in 2 2/3 innings, walking four, hitting a batter, giving up three hits and allowing seven runs, three earned.

El Dorado, on the other hand, had no problem clamping down on Westlake.

The Warriors had one hit through five innings, a bloop single in the third by Luke Riordan.

“My fastball was moving and shaking and baking,” said McMillan, a senior who threw only 1 1/3 innings last season. “I kept them on their heels.”

The Warriors struggled early in the season, including an 0-3-1 stretch in which they lost to unheralded Thousand Oaks and tied mediocre Newbury Park.

But they performed better at the end of the regular season and had outscored four playoff opponents, 30-11.

Then came Saturday.

Westlake catcher Mike Nickeas, a reserve freshman when the Warriors last played in the championship game, said this loss was worse.

“This hurts more for me personally because I’m a senior and some of my best friends are on this team,” he said. “It’s tough.”