Schedule for Boras Classic South’s games Thursday, April 13

• April 13, 2023

Here is the schedule for Day 3, Thursday, of the Boras Classic South baseball tournament being played at JSerra and Mater Dei.

At JSerra: Cypress vs. Santiago of Corona, 9 a.m.; Maranatha vs. Santa Margarita, noon; Norco vs. JSerra, 3 p.m.; (championship semifinal) Orange Lutheran vs. Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks, 6 p.m.

At Mater Dei: Villa Park vs. San Dimas, 9 a.m.; Corona vs. La Mirada, noon; Etiwanda vs. Mater Dei, 3 p.m.; (championship semifinal) Aquinas vs. Huntington Beach, 6 p.m.

The championship game is scheduled for Friday at  6 p.m. at JSerra.

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​ Orange County Register 

Huntington Beach baseball extends win streak by beating Mater Dei in Boras Classic

• April 13, 2023

SANTA ANA – There is a buzz around the Huntington Beach baseball team.

That buzz is the sound of an electric razor.

Huntington Beach has won 14 in a row since the players and coaches went to the buzz cut look.

The 14th win came Wednesday when the Oilers beat Mater Dei 6-2 in a second-round game of the Boras Classic South tournament at Mater Dei High.

The Oilers (16-6) will play Aquinas (14-2) in a semifinal Thursday at 6 p.m. at Mater Dei.

Aquinas beat Huntington Beach 4-2 in eight innings on Feb. 16 in the Prep Baseball Report California Preseason Invitational.

Orange Lutheran will play Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks in the other semifinal Thursday at 6 p.m. at JSerra. The tournament championship game is Friday at JSerra at 6 p.m.

Huntington Beach’s loss to Aquinas two months ago was part of a four-game losing streak and a 2-6 start for the Oilers.

When the team’s record dropped to 2-6 the shearing began.

“We started buzzing our heads right after that,” said senior left fielder Colby Turner, who had two hits, including an RBI triple, Wednesday. “We started playing really good. Great pitching, offense, everybody contributing.”

Oilers coach Benji Medure did the shearing.

“I gave about 20 haircuts,” Medure said. ”I didn’t tell them they had to. Actually it was Ralph’s idea.”

Ralph is Ralph Velazaquez, the Arizona State-signed senior who hit a seventh-inning solo home run Wednesday that had an exit velocity of 101 mph. It was his third home run of the season and gave him his team-leading 17th RBI.

And there was more juju than just the haircuts.

“We had a pow wow one time and wrote down everything that happened that was negative this year,” Medure said. “And we put it in a bucket and we burned it. And that bucket sits outside our clubhouse right now, and it’s a reminder that all of the negative stuff at the start of the season is over and it’s time to move on.”

Part of that 14-game winning streak were four wins in North Carolina that earned the Oilers the championship of the National High School Invitational.

Huntington Beach, ranked No. 1 in the Orange County Top 25, scored two runs in the top of the fourth inning on back-to-back singles by Bradley Grindlinger and Turner, an error, a bases-loaded walk by Brian Trujillo and a fielder’s choice.

Turner, who went into the game with a .381 batting average, drove in a run with his RBI triple into left-center field in the fifth inning. He scored on a wild pitch for a 4-1 lead.

No. 4-ranked Mater Dei (13-5-1) will play at home in a Boras Classic game Thursday at 3 p.m. against Etiwanda.

The Monarchs got their runs on a Huntington Beach error in the fourth inning and a solo homer by Brody Connors in the seventh.

Huntington Beach junior right-hander Nathan Aceves pitched the first four innings to get the win. Sophomore righty Tyler Bellerose struck out four over two innings and junior righty Colin McNiven handled the final inning.

​ Orange County Register 

Dodgers explode to beat Giants with walks, more Max Muncy power

• April 13, 2023

SAN FRANCISCO — Major League Baseball has instituted a series of new rules designed to put more action into the game.

But the Dodgers are doing their best to take some of it out.

The leaders in baseball with 72 walks in their first 13 games this season, the Dodgers used four in a row – including one on a pitch-clock violation and another to end a 15-pitch at-bat by Freddie Freeman with the bases loaded – to spark a sixth-inning rally and come from behind to beat the San Francisco Giants, 10-5, on Wednesday night.

Freeman’s feature-length at-bat with the bases loaded and no outs featured nine consecutive full-count foul balls against Giants lefty Taylor Rogers. When Rogers finally missed the strike zone again, it forced in the go-ahead run.

Two batters later, Max Muncy landed the knockout blow – a three-run home run off John Brebbia, the only hit of the five-run inning.

It was Muncy’s second home run of the game, his fourth of the series and the 25th of his career against the Giants (11 at Oracle Park). Twenty-one of those have come since the start of the 2020 season. According to MLB statistician Sarah Langs, only one player has tormented one team more than Muncy has done to the Giants in that time – Aaron Judge has 22 home runs against the Baltimore Orioles since 2020.

The Dodgers’ five-run explosion salvaged a game that started awkwardly for Clayton Kershaw.

Kershaw came into the game with a career ERA of 1.60 at Oracle Park. But he gave up two bloop singles to start the first inning, wound up on the ground after trying to cover first base on one play and again when he scrambled to make a play behind the mound. A bad slider to Darin Ruf resulted in a double and a 2-0 Giants lead.

The double came in Ruf’s first second-time-around at-bat for the Giants. They traded him to the New York Mets last season then re-signed him last week after the Mets released him this spring.

The second inning was only slightly better for Kershaw. Joey Bart beat out an infield single and was safe at second when Heliot Ramos’ ground ball narrowly missed first Kershaw and then the second-base bag, causing Miguel Vargas to misplay it for an error.

With the inning extended, Wilmer Flores dumped an RBI single into right field for a 3-0 Giants lead.

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The Dodgers began chipping away at that lead with two runs in the fourth inning – and it could have been more.

J.D. Martinez led off the inning with a triple and scored on an RBI single by James Outman. Two-out singles by David Peralta and Miguel Rojas set up an RBI double by Mookie Betts. But Rojas left the game after his hit with cramping in his left hamstring.

That brought up Freeman with a chance to tie the score. He drove a ball to the wall in straightaway center field but Giants outfielder Bryce Johnson made a spectacular catch, crashing into the wall to rob Freeman of extra-base hits. Johnson took a long time to leave the field and came out of the game with a possible concussion.

Muncy tied it with a solo home run an inning later instead and the Dodgers blew it open in the sixth. Trayce Thompson added a two-run home run in the seventh – following a Vargas walk.

More to come on this story.

​ Orange County Register 

JSerra baseball shut out by Notre Dame’s Oliver Boone in second round of Boras Classic

• April 13, 2023

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — Notre Dame pitcher Oliver Boone shut out JSerra 3-0 in the second round of the Boras Classic South Wednesday at JSerra High.

Boone, a Cal signee, pitched a complete game, allowed just two hits and struck out eight. JSerra had only one runner reach second base.

“My slider was working. I could throw my slider literally wherever I wanted the entire game,” Boone said. “I was just able to locate and throw the ball anywhere at any time.”

“He was a video game tonight,” JSerra coach Brett Kay said of Boone. “It’s the best performance we have seen all year where we felt we got beat. We had beaten ourselves a lot this year, but he flat out beat us. That guy can really pitch.”

JSerra (11-8) got an excellent pitching performance from its starting pitcher, Ben Reimers. The Stanford signee allowed just one hit and one unearned run over six innings with three strikeouts.

“I thought he got better as the game wore on,” Kay said of Reimers. “Ben was really good and has been all year for us. He pitched his tail off.”

Notre Dame (18-2) scored in the first inning. UCLA signee Dean West drew a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt.

Cal signee Ryan Limerick reached first on an error by the JSerra second baseman, which advanced West to third. West scored on a wild pitch during the ensuing at-bat to give the Knights a 1-0 lead.

Notre Dame got some insurance runs in the seventh inning against the JSerra bullpen. After an error and a walk, Greg Pierantoni reached on a bunt single to load the bases with no outs.

West hit a two-run single through the middle of the infield to give Notre Dame a 3-0 lead and some breathing room for Boone.

West went 2 for 3 with a double, a run scored and two RBIs.

“Those runs definitely made me more comfortable on the mound but I think having a one-run lead kept me on my game,” Boone said. “I couldn’t have any off pitches. It helped being in a pitchers’ duel, too.”

JSerra left-handed relief pitcher MacAllister Zawistoski was able to escape the seventh inning with no further damage after the single by West.

Trent Caraway and Dominic Smaldino each had one hit for JSerra.

The two teams met in the postseason twice in 2022. JSerra beat the Knights in the CIF-SS Division 1 championship game and also beat them in the CIF SoCal Regional playoffs.

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Notre Dame will play Orange Lutheran in the semifinals Thursday at 6 p.m. at JSerra High.

Orange Lutheran beat Norco 6-2 in the other second-round game at JSerra on Wednesday.

The Knights beat Orange Lutheran 5-4 in eight innings in the quarterfinals of the playoffs last season.

JSerra will play Norco Thursday.

​ Orange County Register 

UCLA’s Tyger Campbell declares for NBA draft

• April 13, 2023

LOS ANGELES — UCLA guard Tyger Campbell has declared for the NBA draft, joining teammates Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Jaylen Clark who already made the move.

Campbell announced his decision Wednesday night on Instagram.

“I take a lot of pride in the success we have had, and that’s the result of a lot of hard work and commitment,” he wrote. “I’m graduating from UCLA and looking forward to the next step in my basketball career. With aspirations to play professionally, I am declaring for the NBA Draft.”

Campbell was a mainstay in Westwood for the past four seasons after missing his freshman year with a knee injury.

The senior from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, averaged 13.4 points, 5.0 assists and 2.6 rebounds while playing all 37 games this past season. Campbell led the Pac-12 in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.2) and also finished third in the nation in that category. He also led the league in free-throw percentage (85.6).

He finished second on the school’s all-time assists list with 655 and 10th in games played at 133.

Campbell earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors for three years and was an honorable mention this past season.

He helped the Bruins reach the Final Four in 2021 and the Sweet 16 in 2022 and again this year.

“This was an emotional last run for the two of us, as we both worked so hard together to make UCLA elite again,” Coach Mick Cronin said in a statement. “He has shown so much heart, hustle and grit in how he led this team and how he overcame a knee injury that wiped out his first season in Westwood. Tyger has so many great intangible qualities, but simply put, he is a winner. We know that Tyger has a long future in pro basketball, and I hope that I’m coaching long enough to hire him on my staff someday, as well.”

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Campbell and teammate David Singleton, who is out of eligibility, are set to compete in the Portsmouth Invitational this week, a pre-draft showcase in Virginia.

Jaquez, a senior, is headed to the draft after deciding to forgo an extra year of eligibility available because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Clark, a junior, has said he will enter the draft. However, he did not indicate whether he would hire an agent ahead of the June 22 draft or retain his remaining eligibility.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

​ Orange County Register 

California’s social equity programs are failing to help victims of the drug war

• April 13, 2023

Oakland became the first jurisdiction in America to include social equity goals in its cannabis regulations in 2017. Since then, social equity has been a popular project for marijuana legalization supporters in Southern California and across the country. Yet, despite the rapid proliferation of social equity initiatives in cities and states, these efforts have mostly failed to achieve their goals of improving the lives of people hurt by the government’s war on marijuana.

The government has harmed many Americans for decades by engaging in an unjust, discriminatory drug war. Former Nixon administration officials admitted they concocted the war on drugs to give them a pretext for harassing black Americans and hippies. Statistics confirm that black Americans were arrested disproportionately on drug charges even though black and white Americans use drugs at similar rates.

The drug war led to the arrest of millions of nonviolent Americans. The resulting criminal records impaired those citizens’ abilities to find employment and housing, attend colleges, and get business loans. Social equity advocates sought to redress some of these harms by creating a series of preferences or privileges for specific populations as part of state and local plans to legalize marijuana sales for adults. Some jurisdictions reserved cannabis business licenses for individuals who met some definition of a “social equity applicant.” Others dedicated a portion of cannabis tax revenues for grants to community-based nonprofits that promised to offer job training or other programs to victims of failed drug war policies.

In California, cities and counties are responsible for crafting their own social equity policies and can receive grants from the state if they do so. Los Angeles, Long Beach, Palm Springs, and San Diego are some of the localities that have received state grants. But policymakers failed to anticipate how these programs could be exploited by people who were never victims of the drug war. Most equity programs allow individuals to qualify based on having lived in neighborhoods where people were arrested even if they personally never suffered any consequences of the drug war. These grants to nonprofits can also be shifted to pay the salaries of officers and directors rather than the intended recipients.

In Los Angeles, corporate recruiters scoured low-income housing projects on the city’s south side, offering to pay as little as $7,000 to individuals to pose as frontmen on cannabis industry business license applications. These frontmen would not own or control these marijuana businesses, but their names could be used so others could gain privileged status as “social equity applicants.” In other variations of this arrangement, financiers paid frontmen modest salaries or granted them a small share of net profits to get social equity status for their projects.

These stories are ubiquitous. Yet, even if they worked as intended, social equity programs should be more capable of correcting government-caused injustices of the past. Not everyone arrested over the last several decades is interested in starting a legal cannabis business today. Moreover, since most jurisdictions limit the number of marijuana business licenses, it would be impossible for everyone arrested for marijuana crimes to get one. And existing social equity programs do little to deliver justice to most drug war victims.

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Social equity must be reimagined. Cities and states should make it easier for unlicensed cannabis providers to get licensed and legally sell marijuana. Barriers to entry, including high licensing fees and limits on the number of licenses, should be eliminated so entrepreneurs with modest means can enter the market and compete.

Furthermore, efforts at restorative justice should focus on targeting relief to all of the drug war’s victims. California has done well at expunging the criminal records of cannabis offenses that are no longer crimes. Now, California must ensure it removes regulatory barriers preventing people ensnared in the failed war on drugs from participating in the state’s legal marijuana market.

Geoffrey Lawrence is the research director at Reason Foundation and author of the new policy report, “Marijuana’s Social Equity Misfire.”

​ Orange County Register 

La Habra baseball scores on a balk for walk-off win over Fullerton

• April 13, 2023

LA HABRA — The Freeway League baseball contest between Fullerton and La Habra on Wednesday featured longtime rivals from neighboring cities in a battle for first place.

That set the stage for the drama that followed.

The game was a pitching duel between Fullerton starter George Papadatos and La Habra starter Jared Day and the intensity shown by both teams matched the importance of the contest.

The ending was a bit unexpected, however, as Ricardo Romero scored from third on a balk call with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to give the Highlanders a 1-0, walk-off victory at La Habra High.

FUHS at LHHS…bottom of the 7th inning…two outs…two on… 0-0 score…and it ends like this! We will take it! @fjuhsd @LHHSbaseball20 @coachJackBrooks @LaHabraHS @LHHSAthletics1 @OCSportsZone @ocvarsity @ocvarsityguy @SteveFryer @SGVNSports @James_Escarcega pic.twitter.com/DkQC31uwm0

— Steve Garcia (@PrincipalSteveG) April 13, 2023

Romero came in to pinch run for Izaiah Posada, who had led off the seventh with a single.

Romero reached second on an error, took third on a fielder’s choice and then scored on the balk.

The Highlanders (13-2-2, 4-1) and Indians (12-6, 4-1) are now tied for first place, and they will meet again Friday at Fullerton High. The winner will keep the top spot and the loser will drop to second.

“We’ll take it by all means,” La Habra coach Jack Brooks said. “But for these kids that competed at such a high level, it’s a little bit unfortunate.”

Papadatos and Day were both ejected after a play at first base in the bottom of the fifth.

Day was batting and hit a ground ball up the first base line that was fielded by first baseman Malachi Meni, who then tossed the ball to Papadatos who was covering the base.

There appeared to be some physical contact between the two players, which prompted the ejections.

Neither coach felt the players should have been ejected.

“There was probably some words exchanged and some shoulder bumping,” Brooks said. “In my opinion, no harm, no foul. They are emotional kids. It’s a league championship game. I wish the umpires would give a little bit more grace.”

Warnings had also been given to players earlier in the game because of some trash talking and heckling taking place.

“There was no ill will I don’t think on either side,” Fullerton coach Shaun Hill said. “I don’t think either of them should have been tossed. I think it was just high intensity.”

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Papadatos gave up one hit and two walks with three strikeouts over five innings.

Day allowed two hits and a walk with five strikeouts over five innings.

“It was a just a high-intensity game for a league championship,” Brooks said. “Both pitchers had thrown a heck of a game. It’s going to be a fun one for all the marbles on Friday. They are a great team. Their coach and I both have a lot of respect for each other.”

​ Orange County Register 

Ukrainian athletes at USC, CSUN try to stay strong, positive while war rages

• April 13, 2023

They’re homesick and sick with worry, stuck in a situation where the only recourse is to be a rock for their families, rock stars in their own orbits. To live well.

To try to be happy.

It’s an impossible mission, but Anastasiia Slivina, a rower at USC, and Yuliia Zhytelna, a tennis player at Cal State Northridge, they’re doing their best.

Because the home they’re pining for is Kyiv, Ukraine’s cosmopolitan capital, with all the history and culture and nature running through it, where their families are hunkered down, afraid but “staying strong,” as Slivina put it, “and believing in our win.”

Ukraine has been under siege since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 2022, starting a bitter, bloody battle that’s become the largest land war in Europe since World War II.

Zhytelna’s parents and three of her four siblings are there, in Kyiv. So is Slivina’s 19-year-old brother, who isn’t permitted to leave Ukraine, and mother – a doctor who has earned an award from the government there for her work over the past year – who wouldn’t go without him.

Anastasiia Slivina posed for a photo with her brother, Konstantin, and her mother, Oksana, in Kyiv, before Russia invaded and the war began. (Photo courtesy Anastasiia Slivina)

They insist that Anastasiia and Yuliia stay put, out of harm’s way in Southern California, where they came to compete. To study journalism or international relations. To experience America.

Now, for now, there’s no going back.

“I miss home so badly!” said Zhytelna, the tennis player who hopped on a Zoom call recently wearing trendy round-rimmed eyeglasses. Her energy brightens a display; it’s easy to see why she’s won over coaches and teammates, professors and a retired pediatrician with whom she stays.

“I wanted to come back in December,” she said. “But my parents said, ‘Stay. Do your thing. You will come back when there’s not sirens and no missile danger and stuff like that.’”

“Yeah, my family says the same thing,” said Slivina, 22, the rower with long, expertly manicured fingernails. She’s someone who thinks deeply, her coach said, about every statement she makes, cognizant always of who and what she represents – especially, probably, on this Zoom with Zhytelna and a reporter.

“You never know,” Slivina continued, “where the missile’s gonna fall, and if it’s gonna fall on you those days that you’re there. Or whatever else can happen. But it’s actually very hard being here because there’s a thing, one of our sports (psychologists) told me, when you are safe but some of your loved ones are not …”

“Survivors syndrome?” Zhytelna offered.

That’s it. “Survivor guilt,” Slivina said.

“I have the same thing!” Zhytelna said.

“Technically, I’m safe,” Slivina explained. “I am fed, I’m warm, I’m a student, I wake up, I do my daily stuff. But there in my country, people are in full war. And you feel guilty and you feel like you would rather be there. And you feel like you’re not supposed to be happy.

“But my mom was like, ‘I know how you feel, but we are so, so happy that you are there and not here. You have to be strong and keep doing your thing. And someday in the future, you’ll do something for our country.’

“And I definitely will.”

AN ESCAPE, BUT NO ELIXIR

Part of what they’re doing now – despite their anxiety, or maybe, in some part, because of it? – is excelling at their sports.

A dedicated, stalwart trainer, Slivina is making good on those attributes that USC women’s rowing coach Josh Adam says got him to recruit her in the first place, including contributing to the Trojans’ season-opening 7-0 victory over UCLA last month.

USC women’s rowing coach Josh Adam said the Trojans have rallied around Ukrainian teammate Anastasiia Slivina, who he said has nonetheless made a “herculean effort” to make sure the team doesn’t know how much of what’s going on back home is actually affecting her. (Photo courtesy of USC Athletics)

And Zhytelna, after failing to crack the Matadors’ lineup last season as a redshirt freshman, is 12-4 in singles play and 12-5 in doubles, her turbulent relationship with tennis having taken a U-turn for the better.

Sports are many things. Entertainment. Distraction. Something to bond over. And sometimes an out-and-out outlet, like last month, after the video circulated of Oleksandr Matsievskyi, a Ukrainian prisoner of war, being executed by Russian soldiers.

The world saw the 42-year-old former electrician standing in a shallow ditch, calmly puffing on a cigarette, wearing fatigues but unarmed, a Ukrainian insignia on his sleeve and “Slava Ukraini” on his lips.

His final unflinching words – “Glory to Ukraine” – spread on Telegram and Twitter, ubiquitous and unavoidable for even Zhytelna, who’d weaned herself off graphic footage from home.

“Everyone saw it uncensored,” she said. “And it got me so angry. The next day, I was playing against Youngstown, and I was so angry. The poor girl, she just met me not in a good spot. I was really, really angry.”

Eliska Masarikova, Youngstown State’s No. 3 singles player, stood no chance: Zhytelna won, 6-0, 6-2.

Sports offer escape sometimes, sure, but they’re not an elixir. So last weekend, against Cal State Fullerton, Zhytelna found herself facing a Russian player and faltered, losing control of her emotions and the match, 0-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Yuliia Zhytelna from Ukraine has been the Cal State Northridge women’s tennis team’s winningest player this season, going 12-4 in singles and 12-5. (Photo courtesy Connor Clark /CSUN Athletic Communications)

“She was just a chicken with her head cut off, sort of the old Yuliia, being frustrated – and then you realized, ‘Look who’s across the net,’” said Gary Victor, who, in his 26 seasons leading the CSUN women’s tennis program, has helped players navigate all types of tragedy, but who hadn’t before had anyone with family living through war.

“It wasn’t a personal thing, but for Yuliia, anything connected to that part of the world right now is an open sore.”

Usually, though – 99% of the time, Victor said – Zhytelna doesn’t show signs of the toll the conflict is taking.

Similarly, Slivina “has been a very professional 90% of the time,” Adam said, “in terms of the herculean effort it takes to make sure the team doesn’t know how much of what’s going on back home is actually affecting her.”

‘LOVE AND CARE’

They’re aware, of course. They’ve shown “a lot of love and care,” said Slivina – “Stassie” to those teammates.

USC’s rowers wore shirts in support of Ukraine in-house. And the staff there made sure Slivina gets the summer classes she needs to maintain her scholarship before she returns for her fifth season – the NCAA’s bonus COVID season coming in clutch.

And last year at Northridge, teammate Magdalena Hedrzak helped the Zhytelna family find a place to stay for a while in her native Poland. Another tennis contact helped get Zhytelna’s younger sister safely into a tennis academy in France. And Yuliia leaned a lot on her doubles partner before she graduated, Ekaterina Repina understanding where she was coming from better than just about anyone, because Repina is Russian.

“Again,” Victor said, “out of the worst of humanity comes the best.”

“That’s what surprised me, that people cared, how much people care about me, specifically,” said Zhytelna, who found a home in Tarzana last summer with Nan Zaitlen, a 74-year-old Jewish woman whose parents survived the Holocaust.

Yuliia Zhytelna, left, has found a home away from home in Tarzana after Nan Zaitlen, a retired pediatrician, opened her house last summer to the Cal State Northridge tennis player from Ukraine. (Photo courtesy Nan Zaitlen)

“It is a very two-way street here,” Zaitlen said “In terms of what is done for each other. I really, really care about her because she’s very easy to care about, and she is very caring.

“And I keep telling her: I look forward to visiting her in Kyiv.”

Athletics also affords a platform and some recognition, including the CalHOPE Courage award, which recognizes California college athletes who’ve overcome stress and anxiety associated with adversity – an honor for which Slivina and Zhytelna were celebrated at an L.A. Kings game in February. Of course, Slivina makes it clear: “I never overcame anything.”

But she is learning to live with this harrowing reality, using Ukrainian literature and music as a salve for that open sore.

And like Zhytelna, she does interviews, in print, and on podcasts or television, speaking up on their nation’s behalf, reminding those around them going about their day-to-day business here about the day-to-day atrocities happening there.

‘THAT SITUATION’

If it’s not the Golden Rule, it’s an adjacent ordinance: You never know what someone’s going through, so be kind. But sometimes you can have an idea; sometimes you should know.

“It happens I feel like all the time, I meet someone and I tell them I’m from Ukraine, and they’ll be like, ‘Oh, is that situation still happening?’” Slivina said. “I feel like it’s just crazy that people ask that.”

That situation.

That situation that, in October, delivered a missile to the street over from Zhytelna’s, shattering the windows in her family home.

That situation that had Slivina’s brother warming food by candle this winter, the electricity out for long stretches.

That situation that’s made them miss birthdays. That’s altered their country so much that they know they won’t really recognize it when they return.

That situation that’s killed more than 42,000 people, injured at least 59,000 and displaced another 14 million. That threatens their loved ones daily.

A situation they’re fighting, like Sviatoslav Vakartšuk – the frontman of Slivina’s favorite band Okean Elzy, who regularly performs on the frontline – by whatever means are at their disposal. “As my machine gun,” the rocker said, “I’m using my guitar.”

Guitar or gun, racket or oar, they contend and they cope with a situation that, yes, is still happening.

​ Orange County Register