Andy Warhol ‘Mao’ screen print, estimated at $50,000, taken from Orange Coast College vault

• March 25, 2024

Orange Coast College officials have asked the public to help it find a screen print of “Mao,” a 1972 Andy Warhol art piece depicting Chinese Communist Chairman Mao Zedong, which was taken from a campus vault earlier this month, authorities said.

Officials became aware that the screen print, which was valued at $50,000 when it was donated to the Orange Coast College Foundation in September 2020, was missing from the vault at the Frank M. Doyle Art Pavilion on March 13, said Doug Bennett, executive director of the foundation.

School officials filed a report with Costa Mesa police Department, which was investigating along with Orange Coast College’s Campus Public Safety, Bennett said. Costa Mesa police spokeswoman Roxi Fyad confirmed the department had taken the report and was investigating.

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To access the vault takes a key card and punching a code into a keypad, Bennett said, adding that it appeared no damage had been done to the vault.

At the time of the donation, officials were told the screen print is No. 187 of about 250 that had been made, Bennett said.

“We’re just hoping that we can find it,” Bennett said, “that perhaps there’s a misunderstanding or someone took it to hang in their office or something like that.”

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“Mao” was inspired by a 1972 visit by then-U.S. President Richard Nixon to China to meet the Communist chairman, “ending years of diplomatic isolation between the two nations,” according to the The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In 1972 and 1973, Warhol “created 199 silkscreen paintings of “Mao” in five scales,” the museum’s website said.

The original Warhol painting sold for $47.5 million at auction in 2015.

Authorities asked that anyone with information on the whereabouts of the missing screen print to call the college’s Campus Public Safety Office at 714-432-5017 or Costa Mesa police at 714-754-5252.

​ Orange County Register 

House GOP threatens to hold AG Garland in contempt over Biden case

• March 25, 2024

By Farnoush Amiri | Associated Press

WASHINGTON — House Republicans threatened to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress if he did not turn over unredacted materials related to the special counsel probe into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents.

In a letter Monday — obtained by The Associated Press — Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan demanded that Garland comply with the subpoena the two Republican chairmen sent last month as part of their emerging investigation into Special Counsel Robert Hur’s decision not to charge the president.

Comer, chair of the Oversight Committee, and Jordan, chair of the Judiciary Committee, ordered the Justice Department to turn over the unredacted audio and transcripts of Hur’s hourslong interviews with Biden and his ghostwriter by April 8.

“If you fail to do so, the Committees will consider taking further action, such as the invocation of contempt of Congress proceedings,” the two lawmakers wrote.

The Justice Department reacted to the letter late Monday, saying the department “has been extraordinarily transparent with Congress” throughout the process.

“The Attorney General released Mr. Hur’s report to Congress and made no redactions or changes, the Department provided documents to Congress including a copy of the President’s interview transcript, and Mr. Hur testified before Congress for more than five hours about his investigation,” Emma Dulaney, a department spokesperson, said in a statement to AP. “Given the Department’s ongoing and extensive cooperation, we hope they will reconsider this unnecessary escalation.”

The threat is just the latest tension point between Republicans and the GOP-appointed federal prosecutor who appeared before lawmakers two weeks ago for a more than four-hour interrogation surrounding his 345-page report that questioned Biden’s age and mental competence but ultimately recommended no criminal charges for the 81-year-old president. Hur said that he found insufficient evidence to make a case that would stand up in court.

“What I wrote is what I believe the evidence shows, and what I expect jurors would perceive and believe,” Hur said. “I did not sanitize my explanation. Nor did I disparage the president unfairly.”

Despite his defense, Hur faced an onslaught of criticism from both sides of the aisle for the commentary in his report and the decision to withhold pressing charges against Biden.

Hours before his testimony, the Justice Department released a redacted transcript that provided a more nuanced picture of the roughly yearlong investigation, filling in some of the gaps left by Hur’s and Biden’s accounting of the exchanges.

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Republicans, including Comer and Jordan, have insisted for the past year that unlike Biden, former President Donald Trump has been treated unfairly in his own Justice Department case for mishandling classified documents. During the hearing, GOP members reiterated that while Biden was let off the hook, Trump has been singled out and vilified, questioning if the facts of the two cases were all that different.

Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., called it a “glaring double standard.”

“Donald Trump’s being prosecuted for exactly the same act that you documented Joe Biden committed,” he told Hur.

However, there are major differences between the two probes. Biden’s team returned the documents after they were discovered, and the president cooperated with the investigation by voluntarily sitting for an interview and consenting to searches of his homes. Trump, by contrast, is accused of enlisting the help of aides and lawyers to conceal the documents from the government and seeking to have potentially incriminating evidence destroyed.

Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Metrolink, Amtrak passenger trains resume full service through San Clemente

• March 25, 2024

Dan Britts gave his daughter a warm embrace and was off for a scenic trek from San Clemente to Oceanside, boarding a Metrolink train that ran the coastal route for the first time in two months.

“We leave the driving to someone else,” said Britts, who was using the train to bounce between his children’s homes for granddad duties. “It’s a great way to get around.”

The Metrolink and Amtrak Pacific Surfliner trains on Monday, March 25, resumed full service through San Clemente for the first time since late January, when for the fifth time in recent years a landslide dumping onto the tracks halted passage.

The latest disruption was caused when parts of hillside above fell onto the Mariposa Bridge along the city’s popular beach path and then onto the tracks. The Orange County Transportation Authority is just completing a 200-foot-long, 15-foot-tall wall to hold back the slope so trains can pass once again.

“We are excited that both Metrolink and Amtrak Pacific Surfliner resumed their full schedules today through San Clemente,” Metrolink spokesman Scott Johnson said in an email.

Metrolink anticipated about 500 customer boardings at stations in San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente and Oceanside throughout the day Monday, with even more of an increase in ridership expected during spring and summer months, he noted.

Last week, a more comprehensive drainage system was integrated with the catchment wall to complement completed grading to the hillside and trenching along the rail right-of-way, Johnson said.

On Monday, trains were able to operate through the area at the regular track speed of 40 mph. Amtrak had already resumed some limited service in morning and evening hours in early March, and freight service has been ongoing most nights, with a few disruptions due to rain and falling debris.

The tracks are part of the 351-mile Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo, or LOSSAN, Rail Corridor.

Britts, a regular user of public transportation at his home near Sacramento, was looking forward to his commute, only $4 using his senior rate.

“You get to look at the ocean most of the way, you don’t have to worry about traffic,” he said. “It’s comfortable, relaxing. I get to read.”

His daughter, Becky Smart, got to save on gas money and spend the time going on a jog instead of sitting in traffic taking him to San Diego.

But her beachfront jog had a detour, with the north end of the beach path still closed by a chain-link fence.

There’s no word yet from the city on when the section between North Beach and the bridge will reopen. A section of the bridge, a critical link along the 2-mile trail, had to be demolished. The city will need to plan a replacement around the newly construction containment wall and also find funding for the millions it will cost to rebuild.

Phoenix residents William and Tammy Adamaitis were hoping to take their favorite beachfront stroll Monday morning from North Beach to south of the pier when they learned the path was still shut down.

William Adamaitis lived in San Clemente in the mid-1970s, and while much has changed in the past 50 or so years, one thing remains the same, he said: the threat of landslides.

“We lived in Shorecliffs; there was a ridiculously large rain one year,” he recalled. “The people who lived down the street, their home just cracked. They had to vacate. It’s not surprising. It’s just part of what’s going to happen. It’s just the nature of the coastline.”

OCTA is trying to figure out how to deal with the coastal threats to the rail line, which is at risk from landslides and also the ocean, with waves battering the tracks and rocks put in place as a barrier from the sea.

The price tag for emergency repairs following landslides and tracks movement  the last few years is nearing $40 million, with a proposal by OCTA to spend another potential $200 million ahead of the next winter for the addition of another longer wall and more rock boulders to secure the tracks; plans that have come under fire from the community and city leaders who are pleading with the transportation authority to use the addition of sand as a buffer instead of hard armoring.

OCTA board members spoke briefly at their Monday meeting about the ongoing challenges along coastal San Clemente, following several public speakers who criticized the proposal for the addition of more boulders to the beach, a method of hard armoring experts say can exacerbate erosion.

Lisa Gant, a member of Save Our Beaches San Clemente, called OCTA’s proposal a “callous, environmentally irresponsible action that will destroy our beaches.”

“We cannot accept prioritizing the railroad at the cost of devastating San Clemente,” she said. “That is too high a cost.”

OCTA staff have said adding sand is not out of the question, but it is a harder process to get through permitting. Katrina Foley, an OCTA board member and also on the OC Board of Supervisors, said she met with Congressman Mike Levin last week to discuss ways to bypass permitting challenges.

Board member Jon Dumitru, who is also on the Orange City Council, said it would be worth staff doing an session dedicated to how armoring impacts erosion so the board could learn about how OCTA’s decisions may or may not be impacting San Clemente’s beaches “so when folks come forward, we can look at it more through their eyes.”

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“If it’s something we’re responsible for, let’s move forward with a plan and do something,” he said. “And if it’s not, let’s communicate it clearly.”

A meeting for the public to discuss OCTA concepts and short- to medium-term plans being studied will be held virtually on April 11 and in person on May 30 at the San Clemente City Hall.

​ Orange County Register 

Home of rapper, music mogul Diddy raided by federal authorities in Los Angeles

• March 25, 2024

Federal authorities searched the lavish Holmby Hills estate of rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs today, but officials did not disclose the nature of the investigation.

Agents from the Department of Homeland Security carried out the raid early Monday afternoon in the area of Mapleton Drive and Sunset Boulevard. Video from the scene showed numerous law enforcement officials, a possible armored vehicle and several people detained outside the home. It was unclear if any actual arrests were made.

It was also unknown of Diddy was home at the time.

“Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HIS Los Angeles, HIS Miami, and our local law enforcement partners. We will provide further information as it becomes available.”

TMZ reported that a home owned by Diddy in Miami was also raided Monday as part of the investigation.

The nature of the probe was unclear, although one report indicated it was part of a federal sex trafficking investigation. Diddy has been targeted in multiple lawsuits in recent months accusing him of sex abuse — allegations the rapper’s attorney has vehemently denied. One of those suits was filed by R&B singer Cassie, a former girlfriend of Diddy. That suit was settled one day after it was filed. Two other women have also filed lawsuits alleging sexual abuse.

Last month, music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones Jr. filed a lawsuit accusing Diddy of groping him while the pair worked together on Diddy’s album “The Love Album: Off the Grid.” The lawsuit also included allegations that Diddy and his son engaged in a “sex-trafficking venture.”

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Diddy’s attorney, Shawn Holley, issued a statement in response saying, “Lil Rod is nothing more than a liar who filed a $30 million lawsuit shamelessly looking for an undeserved payday. His reckless name-dropping about events that are pure fiction and simply did not happen is nothing more than a transparent attempt to garner headlines.

“We have overwhelming, indisputable proof that his claims are complete lies.”

​ Orange County Register 

Ducks finding defensive stability ahead of 5-game trip

• March 25, 2024

The Ducks migrated north for the final time this season, heading to Seattle for a pair of matches with the Kraken before a three-game swing through Western Canada.

They just wrapped up their schedule against the Eastern Conference with Sunday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Coupled with a victory over the Chicago Blackhawks, that might have given the Ducks something of a springboard into the trip despite having already been mathematically eliminated from the postseason.

“We’re coming to the rink and we’re working hard trying to dial in all the details. There’s 11 games left,” winger Ross Johnston said. “If we do keep playing like that, we’ll be in a lot of games, so that’s all we can focus on.”

Coach Greg Cronin said that greater continuity in forward lines and defensive pairings engendered defensive consistency. That’s also been the case on the penalty kill, which took a “nosedive,” Cronin said, after a slew of losses to its ranks before implementing new personnel and tactics. It’s gone eight of nine in its past three games, including a flawless three-for-three against Tampa’s ruthlessly efficient power play.

“I thought the last two games, we were way more stable defensively,” Cronin said. “Guys are familiar with each other now. They get some stability and I just think we’re defending better.”

Instilling a shot mentality in his group remained very much a work in progress, Cronin acknowledged, along with creating more frequent and longer forays into the offensive zone.

The Ducks have been further limited recently by feeble production from their power play. It earned Frank Vatrano his 30th goal of the season late against Chicago during a five-on-three situation, but failed to capitalize on a more pivotal two-man advantage moment against Tampa Bay.

Vatrano’s goal was one of just two with the extra man that the Ducks have managed in March, with their 6.3% conversion rate over that span the worst in the NHL. In February, a short month made shorter still by the All-Star break, the Ducks had the fifth-best power-play percentage in the league.

“There’s been players in and out, so I think, in some ways, (assistant) Newell (Brown) has had a mixed bag a lot of times, so some of that is chemistry,” Cronin said. “It goes dry and then it gets hot again, so hopefully in the next 11 games we’ll see a hot streak.”

Jumping off the themes of hot hands and moments to look forward to in the final 11 games, the Ducks’ top prospect, Cutter Gauthier, piled up seven points (three goals, four assists) between the Hockey East semi-final and final over the weekend. His Boston College squad triumphed again over rival Boston University and likely No. 1 overall pick Macklin Celebrini.

Gauthier and associates will next compete in the NCAA Tournament, beginning with a first-round matchup against Michigan Tech on Friday in Providence. When their run wraps up, Gauthier will be expected to join the Ducks, though his Eagles might very well go the distance. If they advance to the April 13 final, Gauthier could only play one game for the Ducks.

Boston College features three other stars who were drafted in the first round under Coach Greg Brown, a former New York Rangers assistant and longtime right-hand man of the NCAA’s all-time winningest coach, Jerry York.

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“I spoke to Jerry York about (Gauthier) and he said he’s a pure goal-scorer that reminded him of [BC alumnus] Chris Kreider,” Cronin said.

Though they’ll be without Gauthier for their sojourn in Seattle and excursions north of the border, the Ducks could get a dynamic offensive force (Trevor Zegras) and a stalwart defender (Radko Gudas) back from injury during the journey.

It will begin with a rare instance in which they will play two consecutive road games against the same team in the same city, the Seattle Kraken. With their 29th-ranked offense placing just ahead of the Ducks’ (Jared McCann and Vince Dunn have been Seattle’s top producers), the Kraken have had to rely on a top-10 defense and goalie Joey Daccord, a journeyman turned emergent force in net.

DUCKS AT KRAKEN

When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.

Where: Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle

TV: Bally Sports SoCal

​ Orange County Register 

As Santiago Canyon College students, mother and son reach their goals together

• March 25, 2024

When circumstances caused Janette Solis Martinez and her son Jakob to be students at Santiago Canyon College at the same time, they took the opportunity to help each other get the most out of their education.

“My last year was his first year,” said Solis Martinez, 41, who currently works at SCC as executive secretary to the vice president of Student Services.

The unusual situation was a result of the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Solis Martinez, a single mom, had been employed at a law firm for 20 years, where she’d worked her way up from file clerk to receptionist, to assistant, to managing the human resources department. When the pandemic hit, she was laid off, which devastated her.

“I had built a career from out of high school,” she said. “I’m a first-generation American. What I learned from my parents was to work hard.”

It didn’t take her long to pivot. “I just picked myself back up, dusted myself off and was like, ‘You know what? There’s nothing to do. It’s the pandemic. I’m going to go back to school.’ ”

She enrolled at SCC as a full-time student while Jakob was in high school.

“I was taking AP calculus,” Jakob Martinez recalled. When he saw how his mother struggled with her class in business calculus, he offered to tutor her, and she gladly accepted. “I was teaching her math concepts.”

This was a lifesaver for his mother, who hadn’t taken a math class for many years. With her son’s help, she became more comfortable with the subject and eventually began thinking about a move into financial management.

Solis Martinez was able to return her son’s favor by directing him to the many resources she discovered at SCC, in particular the Promise grant.

“I encouraged him to sign up because I saw that he was eligible,” she said.

The Promise grant is for California students wishing to attend a community college directly from high school. Jakob Martinez applied for and received the grant. His tuition at SCC was covered for two years and then eventually extended for a third year because he was a STEM student with a high GPA.

“Early on, I was required to meet with a counselor and plan out an educational pathway,” Jakob Martinez said. “I didn’t know what direction I wanted to head.” When his counselor suggested engineering, he responded enthusiastically.

His mother also told him about SCC’s Math Success Center. Again, Jakob Martinez took full advantage of this resource.

“I would go there with friends, and we’d study, study, study, perfecting our math skills,” he said. “There were professors and tutors there to guide you. For three semesters, I really lived there.”

Every night after school, mother and son had long conversations — Jakob as a STEM student and Janette as a business student — comparing their experiences and talking about what they each were learning.

Solis Martinez applied to Cal State Fullerton’s College of Business and Economics in 2022 and received her acceptance letter on her son’s 19th birthday.

“It really touched me because I was a 19-year-old when I was pregnant with him, so it just felt like full circle,” she said. “He just looked at me in the eyes and said ‘Mom, you did it.’ ”

She is a student at Cal State Fullerton but has taken this semester off to work at SCC, an environment she finds exciting, inclusive and supportive.

Now it’s almost her son’s turn to head to a four-year college. While he waits to hear from the last two universities he’s applied to, he’s getting ready for a 10-week Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Earth and Environmental Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden, a program sponsored by Chapman University.

At 21, Jakob Martinez is looking forward to his summer in Stockholm. At the same time, he appreciates all the ways SCC helped him along his academic journey. In particular, he praises the SCC Trio program that allowed him to tour university campuses on the East Coast, visit New York City and visit universities in San Diego.

“It’s a really exciting time right now as he’s getting ready to graduate,” Solis Martinez said. She credits SCC for helping her family move ahead with their lives — and this includes her teenage daughter Lilly who, while still in high school, is already taking classes at SCC.

“This experience at SCC has given me the opportunity to help provide navigation for my children,” Solis Martinez said. “It’s allowed me as a parent to take the next step. I had no college experience before (coming to SCC). My parents taught me how to work hard, and that’s where I’ve always found my success.

“At SCC, with all the community that is provided here, there’s so much empowerment, and the teachers are so personable that it just allowed me to take in so much and tap into this new resource in my life that I hadn’t had before.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Questions raised about resume of Shohei Ohtani’s ex-interpreter

• March 25, 2024

UC Riverside officials have denied that Shohei Ohtani‘s former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara attended the university, as Mizuhara claimed in his publicly distributed resume — in one of multiple questions raised about the recently fired Mizuhara’s credentials.

A story published in The Athletic quoted a UCR spokesperson saying the school’s “records do not show a student by the name of Ippei Mizuhara having attended UC Riverside.” In February, UC Riverside spokesperson Sandra Martínez told the Southern California News Group that the university has no record of Mizuhara attending UCR.

The bio of Mizuhara, who graduated from Diamond Bar High School, said he graduated from UCR in 2007.

The Athletic article also questioned whether Mizuhara actually spent spring training in 2012 working for the New York Yankees as an interpreter for Japanese pitcher Hideki Okajima, as claimed in the Angels media guides when Ohtani played for the Angels.

RELATED: Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter gets cheers from his old school, Diamond Bar High

And the Boston Red Sox released a statement insisting that Mizuhara never worked for the team, disputing news reports that Mizuhara was Okajima’s interpreter with Boston in 2010.

Mizuhara, who lives in Diamond Bar, could not be reached for comment.

Major League Baseball on Friday, March 22, opened a formal investigation after Mizuhara was fired by the Los Angeles Dodgers amid allegations he stole millions of dollars from the Japanese slugger to place bets with a purported illegal bookmaker.

The story broke Wednesday, March 20, when the Dodgers fired Mizuhara while the team was in Seoul, South Korea, for a season-opening two-game series against the San Diego Padres.

Meanwhile, a former soccer coach and English teacher of Mizuhara’s at Diamond Bar High School said he was surprised to learn of the allegations.

“He never exhibited gambling behavior,” Kemp Wells, the school’s head soccer coach, wrote Saturday, March 23, in a text message. “But adults are different than high-school-age kids. Being around so much privilege can make a person reach for the same. Gambling offers that.”

Like many, Wells — who spoke for himself and not the high school — said he was thrown off by Mizuhara’s two accounts of what occurred.

“There were two stories,” Wells wrote. “One, Ohtani knew about his gambling and paid his debts. Later, he said Ippei hacked his accounts. The first story seems more plausible.”

Wells said he felt bad for his former student and player, who has been a constant next to baseball’s biggest superstar since he came to the U.S.

“It seemed like they had a genuine friendship,” Wells said.

According to ESPN, MLB is expected to request interviews with all parties, including Ohtani and Mizuhara. But the sports network said MLB cannot compel Mizuhara to cooperate since he no longer is employed by the league. Ohtani can also decline to cooperate as a member of the MLB Players Association, the report said.

#Dodgers announce that Shohei Ohtani’s press conference will be at approximately 2:45. No cameras will be allowed in the interview room but it will be carried on SNLA and MLB Network. Ohtani is not expected to take questions

— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) March 25, 2024

Ohtani is set to speak to the news media Monday afternoon, March 25, in his first public remarks since the scandal arose.

The star player’s attorneys, responding to inquiries from the Los Angeles Times, told the paper in a statement Wednesday, “In the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft and we are turning the matter over to the authorities.”

According to The Times, the paper made inquiries about the matter after learning that Ohtani’s name had surfaced in a federal investigation of Orange County resident and alleged illegal bookmaker Mathew Bowyer.

Sources told the paper that Mizuhara had allegedly stolen money from the Dodgers star to place bets, and the amount of money involved was in the millions of dollars.

ESPN reported Wednesday there had been at least $4.5 million in wire transfers from Ohtani’s bank account to the bookmaking operation. A spokesman for Ohtani initially told ESPN that Ohtani had transferred the money to cover Mizuhara’s gambling debts.

Bowyer’s attorney, Diane Bass, told The Times and ESPN that he has never met or spoken with Ohtani. A source told ESPN that Bowyer was aware Ohtani’s name was on the wire transfers, but he didn’t ask any questions as long as the money was coming in.

According to ESPN, Mizuhara gave the network a 90-minute interview Tuesday night, March 19, in which he laid out his side of the story — an interview arranged by an Ohtani spokesman. But after the interview, the same spokesman disavowed Mizuhara’s account and said a statement would be made instead by Ohtani’s attorneys, which happened Wednesday alleging the “massive theft.”

During the ESPN interview, Mizuhara, 39, said he asked Ohtani last year to pay off his gambling debts, and Ohtani, while unhappy about it, agreed to do so. Mizuhara told the network that Ohtani had no involvement in any betting, and the interpreter insisted that he didn’t realize his betting activities were illegal in California. He also said he never bet on any baseball games.

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On Wednesday, however, Mizuhara recanted his comments, telling ESPN that Ohtani had no knowledge of his gambling debts and denying that Ohtani had transferred any money to the bookmaking operation.

According to The Times and ESPN, the investigation into Bowyer, who has not been charged with a crime, involves the same prosecutors who investigated an Orange County-based gambling ring led by Wayne Nix, 46, a former minor league baseball player from Newport Coast. Nix pleaded guilty to a federal charge of helping operate an illegal sports gambling business. A sentencing date has not been set.

Nix’s longtime partner in the gambling operation, Edon Kagasoff, 45, of Lake Forest, pleaded guilty in April 2022 to one count of conspiracy to operate an illegal gambling business and was sentenced last year to six months of probation and a $1,000 fine. He was also ordered to forfeit $3.1 million he earned through the operation.

Contributing writer David Downey contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County softball Top 25: Canyon, El Modena, Esperanza rise entering Carew Classic, March 25

• March 25, 2024

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This week’s Orange County softball rankings.

Notable this week: Pacifica remains No. 1 entering the Michelle Carew Classic, which starts Wednesday. … Canyon, El Modena and Esperanza — tied in the Crestview League with 1-1 records — each climb spots. … Esperanza opens the Carew Classic against No. 10 Mission Viejo on Wednesday.

ORANGE COUNTY SOFTBALL TOP 25

(Records through Sunday, March 24)

1. Pacifica (13-0): Freshman leadoff batter Mattea Stern had three hits and four stolen bases last week to raise her average to .472 and stolen base tally to 11.

Previous ranking: 1

2. Orange Lutheran (10-2): Brianne Weiss pitched the fifth no-hitter of her career last week to improve to 8-1 and lowered her ERA to 0.60.

Previous ranking: 2

3. Los Alamitos (13-3): Gabby Terrones and Cari Ferguson starred in a 5-2 win against Huntington Beach last week in a Sunset League showdown.

Previous ranking: 3

4. Huntington Beach (9-2): Senior shortstop Liah Lummus went 7 for 9 with two doubles and a home run in three Sunset League games last week.

Previous ranking: 4

5. Canyon (12-3): The Comanches could face Pacifica on Thursday if they win their Carew Classic opener against Yucaipa on Wednesday.

Previous ranking: 6

6. El Modena (12-4): The Vanguards showed their resolve last week by defeating Esperanza 5-2 after falling to Pacifica.

Previous ranking: 7

7. Capistrano Valley (12-3): The Cougars are in the Gold Bracket this week in Woodbridge’s Dugard tournament.

Previous ranking: 8

8. Marina (11-5-1): Mia Valbuena returned to the circle in a 3-2 win against Fountain Valley in the Sunset League.

Previous ranking: 9

9. Esperanza (8-6): The Aztecs showed progress by going 1-1 against Canyon and El Modena last week.

Previous ranking: 14

10. Mission Viejo (11-2-1): The Diablos travel to South Coast rival Aliso Niguel on Tuesday before playing in the Carew Classic.

Previous ranking: 11

11. Fullerton (8-5)

Previous ranking: 10

12. JSerra (11-10)

Previous ranking: 5

13. Tesoro (9-2-1)

Previous ranking: 12

14. El Toro (10-5)

Previous ranking: 16

15. Santa Margarita (11-5)

Previous ranking: 17

16. Aliso Niguel (8-3-1)

Previous ranking: 15

17. Cypress (8-7)

Previous ranking: 18

18. La Habra (8-6)

Previous ranking: 19

19. El Dorado (12-7)

Previous ranking: 20

20. Villa Park (8-7)

Previous ranking: 21

21. Mater Dei (8-4)

Previous ranking: 13

22. Fountain Valley (7-10)

Previous ranking: 22

23. Rosary (11-2)

Previous ranking: 23

24. Edison (6-9)

Previous ranking: 24

25. Sonora (6-6)

Previous ranking: 25

Also considered: Whittier Christian

Please send feedback to Dan Albano at [email protected] or @ocvarsityguy on X and Instagram

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​ Orange County Register