High-Wire Act by Westlake Falls Flat in 9-7 Loss : Prep baseball: Royal takes advantage of two fly balls lost in the sun, seven walks and three hit batters.

And so goes the baseball season at Westlake High, where each day the Warriors look more like a group that only Barnum and Bailey could love.

Westlake entered Friday’s Marmonte League game at Royal having managed, in the strangest of fashions, to blow leads in five of its seven losses. That included a one-run loss to Newbury Park on Wednesday in which the Warriors blew a five-run lead and in the ninth inning allowed the tying and winning runs to score when the pitcher dropped a popup.

Then came Friday, when Mother Nature added to Westlake’s woes during a 9-7 loss to Royal (10-1, 2-1 in league play). As if giving up seven walks and hitting three batters wasn’t enough for Westlake, which lost its sixth consecutive game, right fielder Todd Preston twice lost fly balls in the bright sunshine.

“You can’t find a big enough tent for our circus,” Coach Rich Herrera said.

The first ball glanced off Preston’s glove and allowed Royal to take a 5-4 lead in the fifth inning. The second came with the bases loaded and two out in the sixth when Kurtis Anding lofted a fly ball that Preston never saw. Before center fielder Rob Neal came to the rescue, Anding was standing at third and three runs had scored, extending Royal’s lead to 9-4.

True to from, Westlake (5-8, 1-3) took a 4-2 lead in the fourth.

Rico Lagattuta (three for four) and James Jones each hit a run-scoring double, tying the score, 2-2. Andrew Degnan followed with a run-scoring single and Tim Wootten’s fielder’s choice extended Westlake’s lead to 4-2.

But that’s when the Warriors pitched their tent.

Reliever James Clark (1-2) walked the first two batters in the fifth, and two wild pitches moved the runners to second and third. Tomas Kuehn’s ground out scored a run, and Royal tied the score when Preston lost sight of a line drive by Paul Taylor (two for four).

In the sixth, Westlake reliever John Snyder got into the act when he loaded the bases by hitting two batters and giving up a single. Snyder struck out Shane Slayton for the second out, then hit Kuehn to force in a run. Anding followed with a routine fly ball that landed within 20 feet of Preston, who was standing with his arms in the air, looking for help from his teammates.

“We just can’t do the right things at the right time,” Herrera said. “We can’t put seven innings together.”

Westlake didn’t go down without a struggle against Royal’s Jason Ignacio (5-0). The Warriors amassed 11 hits and forced Ignacio from the game with three runs in the seventh on Preston’s two-run single and Lagattuta’s run-scoring double.

But Taylor was summoned from left field and, after putting the tying run at first with a walk, ended the game by getting Frank Margolis to ground into a force out at second. Taylor, who hit his third home run in the fourth, earned his first save.