Orange County softball stat leaders through April 1

• April 4, 2023

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Orange County softball stats leaders through April 1.

To be included, teams must have their stats up to date on the MaxPreps.com leaderboards.

BATTING AVERAGE

Name, school
Avg.
Hits
AB

Isabella Gonzalez, Costa Mesa
.763
29
38

Tea Gutierrez, Huntington Beach
.645
20
31

Kayden Connaty, Garden Grove
.622
23
37

Aleena Garcia, Whittier Christian
.613
38
62

Jocelyn Aguilar, Westminster
.608
31
51

Mickayla Galaviz, Anaheim
.594
19
32

Navaeh Gomez, La Quinta
.593
16
27

Michelle Delgado, Segerstrom
.562
18
32

RUNS BATTED IN

Name, school
RBI
PA
GP

Riley Laygo, Whittier Christian
36
67
18

Makenzie Butt, Fountain Valley
29
55
17

Jailyn Paderez, Whittier Christian
23
63
18

Jocelyn Aguilar, Westminster
23
60
16

ChaCha Miranda, Westminster
21
59
16

Kori Villenueve, Newport Harbor
21
54
16

Isabella Gonzalez, Costa Mesa
19
45
9

Kayden Connaty, Garden Grove
19
40
11

Ariyah Hill, Wesminster
18
57
16

Anaya Togia, Marina
18
57
16

Veronica Moore, Fountain Valley
18
57
17

Ariana Magallanes, Westminster
18
56
16

SLUGGING PERCENTAGE

Name, school
Slugging %
AB
TB

Zoe Prystajko, Huntington Beach
1.241
29
36

Tea Gutierrez, Huntington Beach
1.161
31
38

Makenzie Butt, Fountain Valley
1.130
46
52

Isabella Gonzalez, Costa Mesa
1.105
38
42

Kayden Connaty, Garden Grove
1.081
37
40

Navaeh Gomez, La Quinta
1.037
27
28

Aleena Garcia, Whittier Christian
.968
62
60

Jocelyn Garcia, Westminster
.941
51
48

EARNED-RUN AVERAGE

Name, school
ERA
IP
ER

Zoe Prystajko, Huntington Beach
0.18
38.0
1

Brianne Weiss, Orange Lutheran
0.69
60.2
6

Mia Valbuena, Marina
0.97
79.0
11

Kayden Connaty, Garden Grove
1.24
39.2
7

Navaeh Gomez, La Quinta
1.30
32.1
6

Brynne Nally, Pacifica
1.35
46.2
9

Mckenzie Wanner, Kennedy
1.54
36.1
8

Peyton May, Orange Lutheran
1.57
35.2
8

Lexany Alcantar, Anaheim
1.68
25.0
6

Bayle Hunnicutt, Sonora
1.98
67.1
19

Mia Gonzalez, Buena Park
2.11
56.1
17

Eva Hurtado, JSerra
2.13
95.1
29

Cameron Burroughs, JSerra
2.13
26.1
8

Riley Laygo, Whittier Christian
2.19
99.0
31

Kaitlyn Knobbe, Ocean View
2.25
28.0
9

Sophia Kissling, La Habra
2.31
39.1
13

STRIKEOUTS

Name, school
K
BF
IP

Brianne Weiss, Orange Lutheran
118
245
60.2

Mia Valbuena, Marina
100
325
79.0

Katia Wiklem, Laguna Hills
90
358
69.1

Bayle Hunnicutt, Sonora
73
292
67.1

Eva Hurtado, JSerra
71
411
95.1

Kayden Connaty, Garden Grove
70
168
39.2

Zoe Prystajko, Huntington Beach
67
145
38.0

Brynne Nally, Pacifica
64
180
46.2

Loula McNamara, Tesoro
60
359
86.1

Kylie Loertscher, El Toro
56
243
53.2

Lauren Mendez, Foothill
55
414
93.1

Peyton May, Orange Lutheran
52
143
35.2

Sophie Hunter, Edison
52
228
45.2

Riley Laygo, Whittier Christian
50
433
99.0

Nevaeh Gomez, La Quinta
48
134
32.1

Ava Nolan, Newport Harbor
43
290
57.1

​ Orange County Register 

After Dodger Stadium tackle cuts marriage proposal short, couple is all smiles

• April 4, 2023

Ricardo Juarez and Stephani Ramona Gutierrez decided to tag along with friends to the Dodgers’ Opening Day game Thursday, March 30.

But Juarez, who lives in Riverside, didn’t just take his Mookie Betts jersey and Dodgers cap.

RELATED: Tackle ends Dodger Stadium marriage proposal

The 35-year-old sushi chef at Oishii Sushi & Teriyaki in Moreno Valley also took an engagement ring. He planned to propose to then-girlfriend Gutierrez, 33, who uses the name Ramona Saavedra on social media.

But what Juarez thought would be a proposal shown on the jumbotron ended with him being tackled by security guards on the field — and with him as the star of a viral video.

“I wanted it to be special,” Juarez said Monday, April 3. “I didn’t want to be simple.”

During the seventh-inning stretch of the Dodgers game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Juarez decided to run onto the field from their seats in the left-field pavilion, fall to one knee and propose to Gutierrez, who was in the stands. But a Dodger Stadium security guard sped toward him, tackled him to the ground and handcuffed him. Juarez was escorted off the field as the crowd cheered him on.

Proposal gone wrong at Dodger Stadium pic.twitter.com/qankLwE5sW

— maze (@Mazeaveli) March 31, 2023

Juarez bought the ring two weeks ago and planned something special to show his love for Gutierrez.

“I just wanted to go the baseball game and come out on screen,” he said. “I never imagined it being this big.”

Gutierrez, who lives in Beaumont, said Juarez was extremely excited but he “jumped the gun” with his spur-of-the-moment decision to propose from the field instead of in the stands.

“I was coming back from the bathroom,” Gutierrez said. “I almost missed the whole thing.”

Though Gutierrez, a respiratory student at American Career College in Ontario, said yes to Juarez, there were consequences to his bravery.

“They gave him a citation, they gave him the ring back and they banned him for a year,” she said.

After the tackle, Juarez went to Riverside University Health System Medical Center in Moreno Valley and got a shot for his pain, Gutierrez said.

Juarez said his spine and neck hurt after the tackle, which sent his Dodgers cap and the ring flying. Doctors told Juarez it was normal to feel pain after the impact of such a hit.

A Los Angeles Dodgers spokesperson declined to comment on the incident Friday, March 31.

The couple met when a mutual friend introduced them at Lake Perris about three years ago. They started going on hikes at Mount Rubidoux in Riverside and hit if off, Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez and Juarez have a child, 1, together and Gutierrez has three from two previous relationships.

Planning for the wedding wasn’t the first thing on Gutierrez’s mind when he proposed.

“I was so shocked,” Gutierrez said. “And I was scared. I thought he was gonna go to jail and I thought I wasn’t going to see him anymore.”

While being interviewed on a Spanish-language radio show, “El Show de Piolín” on 107.1 FM, hosted by Eddie “Piolín” Sotelo, pushed the couple to set a wedding date and created a GoFundMe page to help pay for the nuptials. As of Monday evening, $583 of the $20,000 goal had been raised.

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Though the couple was apprehensive about a fundraiser, Gutierrez said, “let’s just do it and see what happens.”

As for the wedding, “we’re shooting for Aug. 5,” she said.

So what happened after Juarez was released?

Juarez was dropped off by security on Sunset Boulevard, near a stadium entrance. Still, he had one more trick up his sleeve.

“He gets on one knee and he proposes again, as soon as I see him,” she said.

​ Orange County Register 

While California lifts mask, vaccine mandates, some restrictions will endure in LA County

• April 4, 2023

As the state officially eased many COVID-era masking rules on Monday, April 3, Los Angeles County will retain its vaccine requirement and mask mandate for all health workers when they are around patients. Visitors and patients, however, will no longer be required to wear a mask.

The county’s rules are more restrictive than other parts of the state. The California Department of Public Health ended the statewide mask requirements in healthcare and other indoor high-risk settings — including correctional facilities and emergency and homeless shelters.

It’s unclear how long the tougher guidelines will be in place locally, but county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer has said they will be reassessed in September, if not sooner.

Many other restrictions have gone away in the county, however. Local leaders have already aligned with the state’s five-day isolation and quarantine recommendations. And workers in correctional roles, detention facilities and adult day care centers are no longer be required to be vaccinated.

“Our communities did a lot of the hard work by getting vaccinated and boosted, staying home and testing when sick, requesting treatments when positive, and masking to slow the spread,” said CDPH Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Tomás Aragón. “With these critical actions, and a lot of patience and persistence, we have now reached a point where we can update some of the COVID-19 guidance to continue to balance prevention and adapting to living with COVID-19.”

As rules ease, monitoring of the virus will continue. County officials will continue to require schools, employers and hospitals and clinics to record COVID numbers and report  outbreaks.

“This is when we take the training wheels off, ” said Dr. Kimberly A. Shriner, infectious disease expert at Huntington Hospital, Pasadena. “We have to learn to live with COVID19 … There are things that we’ve sort of trained the public to do now, hopefully, that ingrained in them to do the right thing when they sense that there’s a risk.”

That said, Shriner added that the timing of the mandate release is not ideal. Masking is a vital first defense from infection, especially in healthcare settings. Because the vaccine does not completely prevent infection, and the possibility of new variants are ever present, them the outcome — if people choose not to wear a mask — is the higher possibility of an uptick in infection rates.

“It’s very hard to measure what’s happening out in the community until you start seeing sick people and, by that time, the horses out of the barn,” Shriner said. “That’s what they’re gonna do — they’re using hospitals, hospital admissions, hospital evaluations as sort of the canaries in the coal mine.”

By default, this all means that as mandates lift and masking becomes a thing of the past, immunocompromised and disabled populations are left to further isolate and ramp up their personal protections.

Along with the mandate lifts, the state will “wind down” other COVID initiatives such as state-funded testing and test-to-treat sites, vaccine staff, outbreak response teams, mobile vaccine units and pop-up vaccination events.

Other impacts to public health programs and initiatives include:

Reduced state support for local contact tracing efforts.
Fewer staffing flexibilities for hospitals and nursing homes.
End of reduced training and certification requirements for certified nursing assistants and home health aides.
Ending the expedited license processing for facilities performing COVID-19 tests.

In a late 2021 report, the National Council of Disabilities People said that disabilities and chronic conditions who were at particularly high risk of infection with, or severe consequences from the virus, were not recognized as a priority population by many states when vaccines received emergency use authorization. It found that roughly one-third of all U.S. COVID-19 deaths were at facilities that house seniors with disabilities and people with disabilities aged 31-64.

“While the struggles faced by people with disabilities have been widespread and urgent during the pandemic, advocates have had less opportunity to bring attention to them due to sheltering in place, social distancing, and the general movement to online communications during the pandemic,” wrote Nikki Zeichner in Disability in the Time of Covid-19: a publication of stories and policy recommendations for American Association of People with Disabilities.

There are still risks for “healthy” populations.

At least 65 million individuals worldwide are estimated to have long COVID, a multisystemic chronic health condition experienced people who were infected with SARS-CoV-2. The condition is disabling, can last for years and has no known cure or treatment. Repeat infections put people at increased risk of Long COVID. The condition can lead to concurrent diagnoses like myalgic encephalomyelitis, dysautonomia, cardiovascular disease along with many others.

Marginalized people living with “Long COVID” and its concurrent diagnoses face heightened medical bias and financial hardships.

Shriner, who is also director of Huntington Hospital’s Long COVID Recovery Clinic, said that the risk of getting Long COVID if the patient stays up-to-date on vaccinations. Through it’s research, the clinic identified markers in patients blood that confirmed their claims of Long COVID symptomology. The finds were surprising for Shriner, who shared that upon early opening of the clinic she was unsure how many patients would truly have Long COVID.

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“I thought we may have a lot of folks that sort of think they have it and they don’t really have it. They’ve all had it. They have the symptoms … their stuff is abnormal. So I think that it’s real, and it’s important and debilitating disease,” she said.

Because the disease is only newly researched, experts are still working to find treatments that will relieve patients suffering and allow them to return to normality.

Shriner added that to avoid infection, people must consider masking if they are high risk or are entering a high risk scenario and to maintain regular COVID vaccinations.

“We need to be very careful,” Shriner said. “The  next six to eight weeks will be critical as people really start not using their masks, and there’s less testing. If a new variant emerges, you want to try to catch it before everybody’s coming into the emergency room with it.”

To read the CDPH update, visit www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/OPA/Pages/NR23-014.aspx. For Los Angeles COVID resources, visit www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.

​ Orange County Register 

CIF-SS girls lacrosse polls, April 3

• April 4, 2023

CIF-SS GIRLS LACROSSE POLL

(Selected by the Girls Lacrosse Committee)

DIVISION 1/2

1. Foothill

2. Marlborough

3. Mira Costa

4. Redondo Union

5. Edison

6. St. Margaret’s

7. San Clemente

8. Oak Park

9. Murrieta Mesa

10. Palos Verdes

Others: Newport Harbor, Newbury Park, Santiago/C, Mater Dei, San Juan Hills

DIVISION 3

1. Huntington Beach

2. Chaparral

3. Simi Valley

4. Portola

5. Northwood

6. Santa Monica

7. Orange Lutheran

8. San Marcos

9. El Toro

10. Murrieta Valley

Others: Rosary, Notre Dame/SO, ML King, Temecula Valley, Downey

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​ Orange County Register 

Check out our OC photographers’ favorite images from March 2023

• April 4, 2023

We asked our photographers to pick their favorite moments from March 2023, and here are some they selected.

The rain continued to make Orange County soggy throughout most of March.

The water-logged hills slide out from under buildings in San Clemente which prompted the evacuation of apartments on the bluff due to the danger of the structures tumbling down the hillside.

The atmospheric rivers that gave us all the rain also provided a beautiful backdrop of snow-capped mountains, but, up at the high elevations all that snow caused Crestline to lose its only grocery store and people to be trapped in their homes for days.

Along with the water falling from the sky, more than 60 Orange County schools came together to learn about water issues and conservation during the Children’s Water Education Festival at UC Irvine. The Angels kicked off their season against the Dodgers and took two of three games from the cross-town rivals.

Over in Costa Mesa, the American Ballet Theatre’s “Like Water for Chocolate,” based on the best selling novel and film, thrilled audiences at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

Along the county’s beaches, Laylan Connelly, the Register’s long-time beach reporter got the news she will be inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame later this year.

In Anaheim, it was all fun and games as Disney opened a “reimagined” Toontown and costumed cosplayers streamed into WonderCon.

Stay dry and stay healthy, and check out the photos and follow The Orange County Register on Facebook and Instagram. Here are our staff photographers’ individual pages: Paul Bersebach, Jeff Gritchen, Leonard Ortiz, Mark Rightmire, and Mindy Schauer.

Stay safe and stay healthy!

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​ Orange County Register 

Veto stands: Transgender pronouns OK in N. Dakota schools

• April 4, 2023

By Trisha Ahmed | Associated Press/Report for America

Teachers in North Dakota can still refer to transgender students by the personal pronouns they use, after lawmakers on Monday failed to override the governor’s veto of a controversial bill to place restrictions on educators.

House lawmakers fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to block the veto, days after Republican Gov. Doug Burgum’s office announced the veto and the Senate overrode it.

The bill would have prohibited public school teachers and employees from acknowledging the personal pronouns a transgender student uses, unless they received permission from the student’s parents as well as a school administrator. It would have also prohibited government agencies from requiring employees to acknowledge the pronouns a transgender colleagues uses.

Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have drafted hundreds of laws this year to push back on LGBTQ+ freedoms, particularly seeking to regulate aspects of transgender people’s lives including gender-affirming health care, bathroom use, athletics and drag performances.

“Ask yourself, does Senate Bill 2231 treat others the way you would want to be treated?” Democratic Rep. Emily O’Brien of Grand Forks said on the House floor, adding that overriding the veto would perpetuate “discrimination, hatred or prejudice.”

Republican Rep. SuAnn Olson of Baldwin said the bill protects freedom of speech for teachers and keeps “inappropriate” topics out of the classroom.

North Dakota will consider other bills this session about transgender students, she said.

Olson said that if lawmakers “are firm on this bill, on girls’ athletics, on separate bathrooms, we will strengthen public schools.” But allowing what she called an “emphasis on sexuality” in schools would cause students and teachers to abandon the public education system.

State representatives voted 56-36 to override the governor’s veto, but 63 votes were required.

All 12 Democrats in the House voted against the bill, as did 24 Republicans. One was Rep. Eric Murphy, of Grand Forks, an associate professor of biomedical sciences at the University of North Dakota.

“I’m tired of these bills. I’m tired of both sides,” Murphy said on the House floor. “If a student wants to be called a different pronoun, does that really matter? Is this earth-shattering?”

In a letter to state lawmakers announcing his veto, the governor said, “The teaching profession is challenging enough without the heavy hand of state government forcing teachers to take on the role of pronoun police.” The First Amendment already protects teachers from speaking contrary to their beliefs, and existing law protects the free speech rights of state employees, Burgum added.

Lawmakers who supported the bill have said in debates that it would free teachers from worrying about how to address each student and create a better learning environment.

Opponents said the bill targets transgender students who already have disproportionately high risks of suicide.

In 2021, Burgum vetoed a bill that would have barred transgender girls from playing on girls’ teams in public schools. Lawmakers didn’t override that veto, but they’re considering new legislation this session to replicate and expand that bill — including at the college level.

Last week, President Joe Biden denounced what he called hundreds of hateful and extreme state laws that target transgender kids and their families.

“The bullying, discrimination, and political attacks that trans kids face have exacerbated our national mental health crisis,” Biden said. “These attacks are un-American and must end.”

Trisha Ahmed is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Trisha Ahmed on Twitter: @TrishaAhmed15

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County scores and player stats for Monday, April 3

• April 4, 2023

Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribe now

Scores and stats from Orange County games on Monday, April 3

Click here for details about sending your team’s scores and stats to the Register.

MONDAY’S SCORES

BASEBALL

NATIONAL CLASSIC

Villa Park 12, Jordan (UT) 1

Cypress 6, Liberty (AZ) 2

Foothill 13, Damien 6

RYAN LEMMON TOURNAMENT

San Clemente 3, Corner Canyon (UT) 1

Centennial/Corona 5, University 2

San Juan Hills 12, Segerstrom 3

Bountiful (UT) 2, Portola 0

Mission Viejo 3, Northwood 1

Trabuco Hills 6, Northview 4

Yorba Linda 6, Irvine 1

El Toro 7, Davis (UT) 6

Ayala 3, Brea Olinda 1

Yorba Linda 3, Northwood 0

Woodbridge 13, Esperanza 5

SANTA ANA ELKS / CENTURY TOURNAMENT

Covina 10, Godinez 3

West Covina 15, Valencia 5

SOFTBALL

SUNSET LEAGUE

Edison 8, Newport Harbor 0

Los Alamitos 8, Fountain Valley 1

EMPIRE LEAGUE

Cypress 15, Valencia 0

​ Orange County Register 

CIF-SS boys lacrosse polls, April 3

• April 4, 2023

CIF-SS BOYS LACROSSE POLL

(Selected by the Boys Lacrosse Committee)

DIVISION 1/2

1. Mater Dei

2. Loyola

3. Foothill

4. St. Margaret’s

5. Mira Costa

6. Westlake

7. Santa Margarita

8. Agoura

9. Trabuco Hills

10, Corona del Mar

Others: None

DIVISION 3

1. Santa Monica

2. Chaminade

3. Crean Lutheran

4. Canyon

5. ML King

6. University

7. Village Christian

8. El Segundo

9. El Dorado

10. Dos Pueblos

Others: None

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​ Orange County Register