Prep talk: Westlake keeps winning games with walk-off celebrations

Call them the Cardiac Kids.

The Westlake High baseball team had won five consecutive home games in its final turn at the plate going into Friday’s home game against Thousand Oaks.

“Come in the seventh inning because before that it’s pretty boring,” coach Wally Barnett said.

The first walk-off win came March 22 against Palisades when Noa Nakagawa reached on an error in the bottom of the seventh for a 2-1 win.

Then came a 6-5 win over Newbury Park on March 25 when Mason Charles got an RBI single with one out in the bottom of the seventh.

Noah Stead hit a three-run home run with one out in the bottom of the seventh on March 28 for a 4-1 win over Newbury Park.

On April 3, Blake Miller’s RBI single with one out in the bottom of the eighth beat Calabasas 1-0.

On Tuesday, Charles hit a one-out home run in the bottom of the 10th for a 3-2 win over Thousand Oaks.

The Warriors have had so many joyous victory celebrations they might need to save some for the playoffs.

Barnett said he has less hair and more gray with all the walk-off victories. Westlake won a playoff game in 19 innings two seasons ago.

Asked if he has some kind of lucky token he’s using or another strategy, Barnett said, “If I knew, I would keep it going.”

Well, it happened again on Friday, with Charles delivering his third walk-off hit of the streak, an eighth-inning single for an 8-7 win over Thousand Oaks.

The next home game is April 16 against Oaks Christian.

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