Swanson: Julio Urias reminds Dodgers why he’d be a wise long-term investment

• March 31, 2023

LOS ANGELES — Change the calendar, turn the page.

After the playoff whimper that spoiled and soiled last season’s bang-up 111-win regular season, the Dodgers get a chance to get their lick back in 2023, to go about it in a different way – starting by handing the ball to Julio Urias.

For the first time, the left-hander from Culiacán, Mexico, got the call to be the club’s Opening Day starter. Not Clayton Kershaw, who has thrown on Day 1 a franchise-record nine times, or Walker Buehler, who got that job last season but is out now after undergoing Tommy John surgery a second time.

This is Urias’ year.

In what he characterized as “an unforgettable experience,” the 26-year-old showcased his characteristic adaptability, getting the victory in the Dodgers’ 8-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday.

After giving up a couple of runs early, Urias retired 12 consecutive batters (one of them with an assist from right fielder Mookie Betts) before giving way to reliever Phil Bickford in the seventh inning, the Dodgers’ hitters having run through three Diamondbacks pitchers and scored seven runs in the same span.

Urias threw 57 of his 79 pitches for strikes, a quality start to what could be his final season with the Dodgers – if they whiff on keeping him.

If they allow one of the best starters in the National League to walk. Balk at what it’ll cost to secure the Cy Young Award-caliber talent whose father, Carlos, has a tattoo on his left arm depicting Julio striking out Tampa Bay’s Willy Adames in 2020, delivering the Dodgers their first World Series title in 32 long years.

If they let the most popular Mexican Dodger since Fernando Valenzuela – though his agent Scott Boras likens him to a modern-day Whitey Ford, because it’s that hard to hit him hard – take his talents to a second team.

You’d like to think that Urias, a homegrown star, is a Dodger through and blue.

Or that he could be.

But we know he’ll be bringing the heat in free agency, his future set to be negotiated by Boras. And that the mega-agent will no doubt ask for the sun, the moon, the stars, all the fish in the sea, sand on the beach, plus a truckload of Dodger dogs and probably a prime parking spot too.

Julio Urías MLB ranks last two seasons (’21-’22):

2.57 ERA (3rd)
0.99 WHIP (4th)
3.41 FIP (13th)
3.76 xFIP (22nd)
3.65 SIERA (18th)
.251 BABIP (2nd)
21.1 Soft% (3rd)
360.2 IP (13th)

If Julio puts together another top 10 season this year, he’ll be a $200+ million man. https://t.co/DDKR3Oi6ax

— Doug McKain (@DMAC_LA) January 13, 2023

“He’s certainly one of the top starting pitchers, if not the top one available in this market,” Boras said in something of a pitch an hour before one of his star clients threw his first pitch.

“He may only be five or six guys in the last 20 years who you could say could be a free agent at 27. Age-wise, he’s probably a level above. And ability-wise and performance-wise, if you look at his performance since (2020), really he’s kind of moved ahead of almost everyone.

“Talent-wise, market-wise, I would say, this is kind of an ideal player for them.”

But there’s no guarantee the Dodgers are going to go in for the guy like that.

After spending $296.6 million in payroll and taxes last season for a superteam that was ignobly excused, 3-1, in the National League Division Series by a San Diego Padres team with 22 fewer regular-season wins, the Dodgers eased off the pedal in the Brink’s truck they’d been wheeling around.

They let shortstop Trea Turner and outfielder Cody Bellinger depart, as well as clubhouse leader Justin Turner. Also: pitchers Tyler Anderson and Andrew Heaney.

But Boras is right: Urias is different.

In honor of Julio Urías’ 25th birthday:

A highlight reel of his 3 appearances in 2020 postseason elimination games.

10.1 innings, 0.00 ERA, final out of the World Series. pic.twitter.com/A5OQ37Slyy

— Dodgers Archive (@DodgersArchive) August 12, 2021

Since closing out the 2020 World Series, he came into 2023 with a record of 37-10 and a 2.57 ERA. Seventh in the NL Cy Young Award voting in 2021, Urias was third last season – and he should have been second.

Baseball’s only 20-game winner in 2021, he boasted a 2.16 ERA last year, becoming the first Mexican-born pitcher to claim the NL’s ERA title.

And, by design but also circumstance, he’s got many seasons’ worth of strikes left in the tank. Seven years into his career, Dodgers star Clayton Kershaw had thrown 1,378-1/3 innings; Urias took the mound Thursday having hurled 599-2/3.

Five days after his 16th birthday, they signed the phenom who had 10 eye surgeries by the age of 10 and who’d tell people, “God gave me a bad left eye and a good left arm.” Then baseball’s top pitching prospect, he made his big-league debut for the Dodgers in 2016 and that October became the youngest pitcher to start a major league postseason game.

He weathered major shoulder surgery, a 20-game suspension for suspicion of domestic violence and came on to live up to those great expectations.

All the while, the ball club, which is nothing if not meticulous, has made it a point to load manage the young man’s arm. Thinking of the future. And always of the postseason.

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Early on, they used him in a hybrid role, as a starter and in relief, and they’ve never had him throw more than last season, when he worked 185-2/3 innings – 58-2/3 fewer than Sandy Alcantara, the Miami ace and last season’s unanimous Cy Young awardee.

But for all that science-based, long-term planning, the Dodgers will have to invest more in Urias if they’re going to keep him around.

They’re going to have to give him lots of dollars and years, even if they won’t give him as many pitches as he wants – though they should take note when reports arise like Bob Nightingale’s in USA Today, which indicated “friends close to Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Julio Urias, frustrated by the pitch limits that the organization has set throughout his career, are convinced that he’ll depart as a free agent after the season.”

I don’t know who those friends are, but I know who the Dodgers would be without Urias.

They’d be a club that’s missing something. With a hole where the pitcher with the championship arm and mettle once was. An unfortunate void without the guy whom fans have so long been so invested in.

They’d be missing their now and future ace, their Day 1 starter.

Julio Urias after giving up just two runs, four hits and striking out six in six innings in his first Opening Day (Night) start: “To send the fans home with a victory was a blessing. Truly a blessing.” pic.twitter.com/LdWTc00lBc

— Mirjam Swanson (@MirjamSwanson) March 31, 2023

​ Orange County Register 

Kraken hand Ducks their 6th straight loss

• March 31, 2023

By MARK MOSCHETTI The Associated Press

SEATTLE — After a frustrating eight-game homestand, a change of scenery did little to change the Ducks’ fortunes.

Jaden Schwartz and Matty Beniers scored within three minutes of each other in the first period and the Seattle Kraken hung on to beat the Ducks, 4-1, on Thursday night, handing the visitors their sixth consecutive loss as they started a three-game trip.

Daniel Sprong added a power-play goal with 4:18 left in the game and Alex Wennberg sealed it with an empty-netter. Martin Jones made 18 saves to help the Kraken keep their grip on the top Western Conference wild-card playoff spot.

Brock McGinn scored the lone goal for the Ducks, and Lukas Dostal made 35 saves.

Schwartz put the Kraken ahead at 7:57 of the first period. Will Borgen, playing on the right side behind his own blue line, angled a cross-ice pass that Schwartz caught up with just over the Ducks’ blue line. From the top of the left circle, Schwartz fired it past Dostal.

Beniers made it 2-0 at 10:37 when his shot went off the net, but came right back to him and he poked it in off the edge of his stick.

McGinn cut the Ducks’ deficit to 2-1 with 1:16 left in the second period. In a scramble behind the net, Derek Grant came up with the puck and got it out to McGinn in the middle of the left circle. McGinn’s shot went off Jones’ right pad and into the far side.

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Sprong got his 20th of the season to make it 3-1 when he skated around a defender and lifted a shot high over Dostal’s left glove. Wennberg’s 13th came on a shot from behind the red line into the empty net with 2:15 to go.

NOTES

McCann’s assist on Beniers’ first-period goal gave him 29 points (13 goals, 16 assists) in the last 28 games dating to Jan. 25. … Beniers continues to lead all rookies in scoring with 51 points on 21 goals and 30 assists. His goal total is tied with Dallas’ Wyatt Johnson. … Seattle won its 10th series of the season, going 3-1-0 against the struggling Ducks.

UP NEXT

The Ducks play at Edmonton on Saturday night.

The Kraken host the Kings on Saturday night.

More to come on this story.

​ Orange County Register 

Oilers shut out Kings to take over 2nd place in Pacific Division

• March 31, 2023

EDMONTON, Alberta — A hot goalie and a generational talent were too much for the Kings to overcome, and that led to a shuffle in the tightly packed Pacific Division standings.

Stuart Skinner made 43 saves and Connor McDavid scored his NHL-leading 61st goal of the season as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Kings, 2-0, on Thursday night for their third straight victory.

McDavid scored his 300th NHL goal, beating Kings goalie Joonas Korpisalo with a wrist shot from the slot on a short-handed breakaway to make it 2-0 at 3:53 of the third period.

He pointed to the Oilers clamping down defensively.

“It is one thing to talk about it, it is another thing to go out there and do it,” said McDavid, who helped Edmonton (97 points) climb over the Kings (96) for second place in the division, two points behind first-place Vegas. “We talk about being defensive and playing hard and I felt you saw that tonight.”

McDavid became the first player in NHL history to have five 10-game point streaks in a season, breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record of four in 1986-87. McDavid also became the fifth player in league history to reach 300 goals and 500 assists before playing 600 career games, following Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Peter Statsny and Bryan Trottier.

Korpisalo made 35 saves for the Kings, who have lost two in a row after their franchise-record 12-game points streak.

“I thought it was a hell of a game, both teams played really hard and it came down to a bounce or a break or two and they were able to score,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “We had some real good looks and we ran into a hot goaltender and didn’t quite get it over the goal line, but I thought it was a heck of a game.”

Skinner recorded his first shutout of the season and second in the NHL, as Edmonton finished 12-2-1 in March.

“I felt pretty good,” Skinner said. “I think confidence grows as the team is doing such a good job in front of me. I think for a full 60 minutes that we just battled hard. Being able to get the two points is massive. We were so hungry to win every battle and I think that was very impressive to watch.”

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The only other time Skinner had an NHL shutout was last season against San Jose, but he was sent down to the AHL the following day.

“We’re not going to do the same thing we did last year,” Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said. “He’s mature beyond his years. He came up with the big save at the right time. That team shoots from everywhere, they’re volume shooters. But had some really good chances late in the third and Stuart was there.”

Evander Kane opened the scoring with 52 seconds left in the first period with his 15th of the season.

UP NEXT

The Kings play at Seattle on Saturday night.

The Oilers host the Ducks on Saturday night.

​ Orange County Register 

Dodgers heat up, beat Diamondbacks in season opener

• March 31, 2023

LOS ANGELES — They went with a cold open.

A rare night start, atmospheric rivers and whatnot combined to make this the chilliest Opening Day in recent memory. The announced game-time temperature of 54 degrees was the coldest (by eight degrees) for a Dodgers home opener in the past 25 years.

But Will Smith kept the home fires burning, driving in four runs – including the Dodgers’ first three of the season – before his teammates warmed up and beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 8-2, on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium.

Rookie James Outman also hit a two-run home run as the Dodgers won for the 12th time in their past 15 season openers.

“That’s why I feel confident with Will hitting where he does. There’s bat-to-ball. There’s slug in there. He knows how to drive in a run,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Smith, who has replaced Trea Turner (a 100-RBI man last year) as the No. 3 hitter in the lineup.

“He understands his main job is to be a servant to the pitchers – which he does a very good job of that. But the bat plays. He’s one of the top few hitting catchers in baseball. To be able to plug him in at the top of our lineup says something about the player.”

The Dodgers spotted the Diamondbacks a 2-0 headstart as Julio Urias gave up three hits and hit a batter in the first six he faced.

Nick Ahmed led off the second inning with a double and should have taken a picture of second base to show his teammates. No other Diamondback got there safely the rest of the night against Urias or three relievers (Phil Bickford, Shelby Miller and Yency Almonte).

“I made a couple adjustments. I felt like myself a little bit more after those first couple innings,” Urias said through an interpreter. “The first two innings, I was cutting the fastball a little too much. I was able to make the adjustments and pitched better over the last few innings.”

Urias retired 13 of 15 after Ahmed’s double. The only baserunners came on an error by shortstop Miguel Rojas in the second inning – a double play followed on the next batter – and a single by Ketel Marte in the sixth. Marte was thrown out by Mookie Betts when he tried to stretch it into a double.

“I think he just synced up his body a little bit,” Smith said of Urias. “His stuff just seemed a little crisper. He got more comfortable out there.”

Smith had a double in his first at-bat but didn’t start chipping away at the Diamondbacks’ lead until the third inning. Outman led off with a walk and went to third when Rojas punched a ground-rule double down the right field line.

Betts and Freddie Freeman couldn’t advance the runners but Smith drove them both in with a two-out, two-strike single to right field.

“Those two-out hits, he’s really close to getting out of it with a zero,” Smith said. “Those really kill you as a pitcher.”

In the fifth, Betts walked and Freeman singled to put runners at the corners for Smith. This time, he parachuted a 60.8 mph bloop single into right field, driving in the go-ahead run. J.D. Martinez and David Peralta added RBI singles as the Dodgers drove Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen from the game.

Miguel Vargas led off the sixth with his second walk of the game – a throwback to the early days of spring when Vargas wasn’t allowed to swing the bat in games (due to a hairline fracture in his pinkie) and yet was walked repeatedly.

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Outman followed and worked the count full against Diamondbacks reliever Cole Sulser then drove a fastball over the wall in left-center field. Outman homered in his first major-league game at Coors Field last year and added a home run in his first game at Dodger Stadium (his big-league cameo last year was all on the road).

“Definitely at the beginning,” Outman said when asked if he had any nerves on his first Opening Day in the big leagues. “I couldn’t stand still when they were doing all the announcements (pre-game introductions). But once the game started, I settled in.”

Outman reached base for a third time on a leadoff single in the eighth and scored his third run of the game on a sacrifice fly by Smith.

The first game under the new pitch clock rules came in at 2 hours, 35 minutes – despite featuring 10 runs on 16 combined hits with three mid-inning pitching changes and a long conference between home plate umpire Marvin Hudson and Diamondbacks manager Torey Luvollo after Hudson assessed a Diamondbacks reliever with a quick-pitch violation.

“It’s great,” Roberts said of the new pace-of-play rules. “That was front of mind actually. Looking at the game and, man, we played 2:35 tonight. Last year it was probably 3:35.”

TIE GAME! @will_smith30 knocks in a pair with a single, 2-2. pic.twitter.com/oBd7uh5i5C

— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) March 31, 2023

First RBI as a Dodger for @JDMartinez28. pic.twitter.com/ovCOcRpCwS

— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) March 31, 2023

When will they learn.

You don’t run on Mookie. pic.twitter.com/COsxJSuoNL

— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) March 31, 2023

JAMES OUTMAN ! pic.twitter.com/zbTO1fJZPK

— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) March 31, 2023

​ Orange County Register 

Angels’ bats, bullpen fail to support Shohei Ohtani in season-opening loss

• March 31, 2023

OAKLAND — On a night when Shohei Ohtani had a brilliant start, Mike Trout was unlucky at the plate and Hunter Renfroe was lucky in right field, the game ended up being decided by Aaron Loup.

And the veteran lefty had a simple summation for his performance in the Angels’ 2-1 loss to the Oakland A’s in the season opener on Thursday night.

“Embarrassing, honestly,” Loup said. “Probably the most embarrassing outing of my career for me. … I was out there pitching scared. … It is what it is. Game 1. Long season.”

Loup wouldn’t elaborate on what he meant by “pitching scared,” but he assured that it “definitely won’t” happen again.

His belt-high 0-and-2 curveball to left-handed hitting Tony Kemp wound up bouncing off the fence for a game-tying double in the eighth. The go-ahead run then scored on a single by Aledmys Diaz against reliever Ryan Tepera.

That eighth-inning hiccup was enough to send the Angels to their ninth Opening Day loss in the last 10 years, leaving Ohtani without a victory on a night when he pitched six scoreless innings, striking out 10.

Ohtani recorded two of his strikeouts after allowing his only two hits, a fourth-inning single and double that put runners at second and third with one out in a scoreless game. He got Jesus Aguilar on a splitter and then whiffed Ramon Laureano on a 100-mph fastball.

“He went from dominant to unhittable,” Trout marveled.

Ohtani started off a little shaky in the first, but then he settled into a groove and had little trouble with the A’s. He was saved from a leadoff extra-base hit in the fifth on a remarkable catch by Renfroe in right field.

Jace Peterson hit a line drive and Renfroe said the wind took over. He ended up turned the wrong way, and he stabbed his glove out behind him, with the ball sticking in it. He said he never saw the ball go into his glove.

“We mess around in BP all the time making trick catches and doing stuff like that,” Renfroe said. “Sometimes you’ve got to use it when the ball is doing crazy stuff in the outfield and the wind is pushing it different directions. I’m glad I caught it. It’s not how you draw it up, but it is what it is.”

Trout, watching from center field, could only laugh at what his teammate did.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Trout said.

Renfroe’s catch and Ohtani’s outing all might have come in a victory, despite Loup’s performance, if the Angels’ much-improved offense had not started the season with such a disappointing performance.

Facing rookie left-hander Kyle Muller for the first five innings, the Angels managed just five hits. Their only run was on a Logan O’Hoppe RBI single in the fifth.

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The Angels’ best at-bats were Trout’s, and none of them were hits. In the first inning, his 108 mph line drive was caught by diving center fielder Esteury Ruiz. In the sixth, he hit a ball 104 mph and it was caught by left fielder Seth Brown with his back against the fence. In the eighth, Trout hit a 106 mph line drive that Brown caught.

“That’s baseball for you,” said Trout, who also walked. “Just have good at-bats. Put the barrel on it. If they get caught, they get caught. I felt really good out there today.”

Otherwise, the Angels went quietly, a disappointing start for a team that boasted its deepest lineup in years. The Angels’ primary problem last year was a failure to produce offensively, but no one expects that to be an issue this year unless the lineup is again ravaged by injuries. On this night they had all the players they wanted in the lineup, but they still couldn’t score.

“We’re going to score runs,” Manager Phil Nevin said. “I’m not worried about that. Just Opening Night. Baseball gets weird sometimes. We’re gonna swing the bats. We’re gonna score a lot of runs.”

​ Orange County Register 

UCLA gymnastics into NCAA regional finals after record performance

• March 31, 2023

LOS ANGELES — Senior Margzetta Frazier reached up to place the “UCLA” sticker on the massive print-out of the NCAA gymnastics bracket, then got a minute-long hug from teammate Jordan Chiles afterward. The moment officially signified the Bruins’ record-setting score of 198.275, which won the second semifinal of the Los Angeles Regional on Thursday night and sent them to the finals.

The Bruins posted season-best scores in vault and balance beam and finished with the program’s best NCAA postseason score ever, matching their season-high and surpassing 198 points for the third time this season. To the No. 4 national seed and top-seeded team in the regional, it feels normal.

“We were sitting there on the floor getting our awards and I said, ‘I forgot we were at regionals,’” Frazier said. “It just felt like another competition and we just did exactly what we trained for. Like, this is postseason and we’re getting 198s. That’s a big deal.”

UCLA returns to Pauley Pavilion on Saturday at 5 p.m. for the regional finals. Utah (198.125) and Washington (196.775), the top two finishers from Thursday’s first session, will also compete, along with Missouri, which finished second in the late session with a 197.400.

The top two teams from Saturday’s meet advance to the NCAA Championships on April 13-15 in Fort Worth, Texas. The top individual event finishers and the best all-around competitor who is not on a qualifying team will also advance.

The Bruins are vying for their first appearance as a team in the NCAA championships since 2019 (there were no 2020 championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

Brooklyn Moors added to Thursday’s excitement by making competitive debuts in floor exercise and on vault. She scored a 9.925 and 9.85, respectively, and had performed exhibition routines in both events as an alternate earlier this season after working back from a preseason injury.

“It felt fantastic,” Moors said. “I’ve been working so hard to recover and get my skills back and I’ve been supporting the team as much as I can on the sidelines but it felt good today to do it on the floor.”

UCLA’s Jordan Chiles won the all-around with a 39.750 on Thursday, followed by Selena Harris at 39.650. Chiles also took first in the uneven bars (9.975) and the floor exercise (9.95), while Harris tied for the top score on the balance beam (9.975) with teammate Emma Malabuyo.

The Bruins started the evening with a season-best 49.675 on the balance beam, the fourth-best score in the event in program history. Freshmen Selena Harris (9.975) and Ciena Alipio (9.925) both turned in season-bests in the event.

Brooklyn Moors subbed in for Malabuyo on floor exercise and the Bruins hit 49.500 to lead all teams after two rotations. UCLA then posted another season-high event score on the vault (49.575), the sixth-highest event score in program history.

Frazier reached her first 9.900 mark of the season in vault, up from her previous best of 9.825 that she recorded in mid-February. The 9.900 is also a career-high, and she did it in a pair of wrist guards borrowed from teammate Kalyany Steele.

“I’m so tickled that it was vault,” Frazier said. “First of all, I left my wrist guards at the gym and I said, Kaly, do you have your wrist guards? So I got my season high because I used Kaly’s wrist guards.”

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Frazier has been dealing with minor nagging injuries throughout the season that have limited her in practice. She said that lately she’s been participating in full workouts and feeling good physically, which paid off in Thursday’s meet.

“Margz really set the tone on vault,” Coach Janelle McDonald said. “Being so dynamic and having such a clean landing, I think it really fired the team up to go after it and attack it.”

The Bruins ended the night on the bars with a score of 49.525. Chae Campbell and Emily Lee started with matching scores of 9.850, and Ana Padurariu added a 9.900, her fifth consecutive score of 9.900 or higher on the event. Harris added a 9.875, Frazier a 9.925, and Chiles closed it out with her 14th 9.975 of the season. The Bruins finished nearly nine-tenths ahead of Missouri, which edged Stanford for second place after scoring 49.475 on the balance beam.

The Bruins will look to remain poised on Saturday as they look to punch their ticket for a spot in Fort Worth.

“I don’t think anyone thought about Day 2 once while we were here today,” Frazier said. “We’re just taking it one day at a time and treating it like practice. We’re just gonna do that one more time, two more times or three more times.”

​ Orange County Register 

Mi Hyang Lee fires a 65 for first-round lead at LPGA’s LA Open

• March 31, 2023

PALOS VERDES ESTATES — Mi Hyang Lee shot a 6-under-par 65 in her first LPGA Tour event of the year for a one-stroke lead in the opening round of the DIO Implant LA Open on Thursday at Palos Verdes Golf Club.

Lee, a 30-year-old South Korean who has slipped to 378th in the world, played bogey-free and closed with a birdie on the par-4 18th hole on a chilly day on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Lee has two career LPGA Tour victories, the more recent at the Ladies Scottish Open in 2017. She was runner-up at the ANA Inspiration, a major, in 2019 to reach a career-best 31st in the rankings but has struggled the past three years.

Megan Khang and Hyo Joo Kim each shot 66. Nasa Hataoka, Lucy Li and Maude-Aimee LeBlanc were another shot behind.

Second-ranked Nelly Korda and her sister, Jessica, were among the group at 3 under.

This is the fifth playing of the LA Open and the first at Palos Verdes, which hosted a different event, the Palos Verdes Championship, last year – won by Marina Alex, who shot a 1-over 72 on Thursday.

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​ Orange County Register 

Gunman convicted of manslaughter in slur-filled spat at Westminster motel

• March 31, 2023

A gunman was convicted of manslaughter on Thursday, March 30, for killing a transient who was apparently yelling racial slurs at him while holding a baseball bat at a Westminster motel.

An Orange County Superior Court jury found Jonathan Breon Dunlap, 34, guilty of voluntary manslaughter, rather than of a more serious charge of murder, for the Dec. 2, 2017, slaying of John Nondorf, 37, at a Motel 6 in the 13100 block of Goldenwest Street.

That Dunlap, a Black man who had arrived at the motel from a party and was inebriated, had shot Nondorf in the face following a confrontation outside Nondorf’s motel room was not disputed.

Nondorf was a White transient who usually lived out of his Toyota RAV4 with his fiancée.

Two surveillance cameras captured the shooting but not a clear view of Nondorf’s actions just before he was killed. That left attorneys, during closing arguments this week in a Santa Ana courtroom, arguing over whether Nondorf was retreating into his room when he was shot, as the prosecution contended, or if he was charging at Dunlap while wielding the bat, as the defense countered.

The confrontation appeared to begin with Nondorf ordering Dunlap to get away from his car. Surveillance footage shows Dunlap near Nondorf’s SUV as he walks through the parking lot; he may have accidentally bumped it.

A woman staying at the motel said Nondorf said,”Stay away from my car,” with Dunlap answering, “My bad.”

Nondorf’s fiancée, however, testified that Dunlap responded by saying, “(Expletive) your car!”

Both women agreed that Nondorf used racial slurs including the “n word” during the ensuing argument. Nondorf’s fiancée said both sides used slurs, including Dunlap calling Nondorf a “cracker.”

Nondorf briefly went back into his motel room, then returned outside with a child’s-size baseball bat.

Witnesses say a friend of Dunlap’s took a gun out of the backseat of her car and handed the weapon to Dunlap, or he grabbed it.

Dunlap and several friends were just outside the door to Nondorf’s motel room, while Nondorf was apparently just inside at this point, out of the cameras’ view.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Janine Madera told jurors that Dunlap punched Nondorf in the face before shooting him. She denied that Nondorf was still acting aggressive when shot.

“He was outnumbered four to one and knew they had a gun,” Madera said. “He understood he brought a peewee bat to a gunfight, and he wanted out. … You can’t kill someone for saying something you don’t like, even if we can all agree it was offensive.”

Dunlap’s attorney, Cameron Talley, re-enacted for jurors what he argued were the final moments of the confrontation, holding the blood-stained bat: Talley told jurors that by grabbing the bat Nondorf had introduced the potential for lethal force, and argued that Dunlap didn’t shoot until Nondorf “rushed” at him.

The defense attorney said Nondorf could have simply closed his door and denied that Dunlap punched him.

“Mr. Nondorf is dead today because of his own actions,” Talley said. “This case is about a bigot who is angry and started this altercation.”

Dunlap faces up to 44 years to life in prison.

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​ Orange County Register