Gio Urshela happy with Angels’ decision to give him a continued look at shortstop

• March 31, 2023

OAKLAND — When the Angels acquired Gio Urshela last winter, their plan was to have a versatile player who could play anywhere on the infield. Now, that they’ve reached the season, it looks like they’re going to see how much shortstop he can handle.

Asked how much he can expect Urshela to play shortstop, Manager Phil Nevin said: “I don’t know. He’s playing tonight. That’s the way I look at it. We’ll evaluate it on an everyday basis.”

For Urshela’s part, he’s thrilled with the chance. Although he’s played third base in 548 of his 600 major league games coming into this season, he said during spring training that he was eager to get more chances at shortstop because he’s more involved in every play.

“I’m excited to have this opportunity to play shortstop,” Urshela said before Thursday’s opener. “I feel good. I’m really happy. We’ll see how everything goes.”

Urshela said he has worked on improving his body through better nutrition over the past few years, and he thinks that’s made him quick enough to handle the position.

The Angels also have David Fletcher, who seems likely to start at shortstop whenever Urshela can’t, and probably to go in for defense when the Angels are protecting a lead.

DAVIDSON’S ROLE

Left-hander Tucker Davidson is in the bullpen for now, but he is also first in line to be the Angels’ No. 6 starter when that spot first comes up on April 12.

In the meantime, Davidson said he’s comfortable with a relief role.

“I’m going to do whatever it takes,” he said. “We’re all trying to do the same thing, and that’s win every night.”

The tricky part of Davidson’s role is that he might not be needed much in relief, and he’ll have to somehow stay sharp enough to be ready to start. A reliever can’t throw a full bullpen session the way a starter would in between starts, because he might be needed that night. Davidson said he could throw 10 to 15 pitches at less than full intensity, just to stay sharp, and still be able to pitch that night.

CANNING UPDATE

Right-hander Griffin Canning, who is on the injured list with a groin strain, is not expected to be out for long.

“It’s just a little tweak,” Nevin said, adding that “hopefully he’ll be ready in a short time.”

Canning is eligible to come off the injured list on April 11, which would actually make him a candidate to start on April 12. In order for that to happen, he’d likely need to be healthy enough to pitch in some kind of rehab game within a week.

NOTES

Right-hander Chris Rodriguez, who was placed on the injured list because he’s still slowly recovering from 2021 shoulder surgery, is scheduled to face hitters in simulated games a couple more times before the Angels consider taking another step with him. …

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Nevin said Shohei Ohtani and Ryan Tepera are the only two Angels pitchers who are using PitchCom to call their own pitches. The catchers will call the pitches for the others. …

Nevin said he feels like all of his players got enough work with the pitch timer during spring training and that he’s not concerned about issues now that the games count. “I think they understand it’s there,” he said. “They know it’s there. The flow of the game has been good. I think it’s gonna be just fine.”

UP NEXT

Angels (LHP Patrick Sandoval, 6-9, 2.91 ERA in 2022) at A’s (RHP Shintaro Fujinami, MLB debut), Saturday, 1:07 p.m., RingCentral Coliseum, Bally Sports West, 830 AM

​ Orange County Register 

Santa Anita horse racing consensus picks, Friday, March 31, 2023

• March 31, 2023

The consensus box of Santa Anita horse racing picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Art Wilson, Terry Turrell and Eddie Wilson. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Friday, March 31, 2023.

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​ Orange County Register 

Fryer: Trabuco Hills Invitational an important step for track standouts

• March 31, 2023

The high school track and field season has had some fine meets that have yielded fine marks.

The meat of the season starts this weekend.

The Trabuco Hills Invitational being held Friday and Saturday at Trabuco Hills High is worth watching for many reasons, particularly this one – Rodrick Pleasant is scheduled to make his season debut.

Pleasant, a senior at Serra of Gardena, set a state record in the 100 meters with a time of 10.14 seconds at last year’s CIF Southern Section Masters Meet, the world’s second-fastest wind-legal time run by a 17-year-old in the history of the event. He also won the 100 and 200 at the CIF State Championships last season.

Pleasant is also a football standout, and signed with Oregon, where he plans to be compete in track and football.

The “S” on the front of Pleasant’s track jersey is for “Serra” but it looks like the “S” on Superman’s uniform and that seems appropriate enough.

Pleasant will be among the nine runners in the field for the 100 that is set to go at 10:40 a.m. Saturday. It will be the first of 15 heats in the boys varsity 100 Saturday – the best time from the 15 races will be the 100 champion. Also in Pleasant’s group will be Los Alamitos sophomore Devin Bragg, who was last year’s CIF-SS Division 1 100 champion at 10.35.

Bragg recently returned to Los Alamitos after attending Sierra Canyon for several months.

Rodrick Pleasant (No. 5) of Serra wins the boys 100 meters with a state record-setting time of 10.14 as Devin Bragg of Los Alamitos, left, finished third and Max Thomas of Servite finished fourth at the CIF-SS Track and Field Masters Meet at Moorpark High School on Saturday, May 21, 2022. ( Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

Bragg and Pleasant also are entered in the 200 for a head-to-head clash in the first of that event’s 14 sections.

Another Serra athlete scheduled to run at Trabuco, Serra senior Brazil Neal, was 200 champion at last year’s CIF State meet at 23.68. She was second in the 100 at 11.57.

Some of Orange County’s season leaders are in various events. Santa Margarita senior Lidia Major is in the 300 hurdles. Her time of 44.46 is the best in the county this year. Santa Margarita senior Roman Mendoza is in the boys 300 hurdles. His 37.91 is the county’s best in that one.

Fountain Valley senior Jonathan Yu takes his county-leading mark of 45 feet, 2.25 inches into the triple jump.

The girls long jump has two Mission Viejo standouts, seniors Jada Gatlin and Emily Psarras. Also in that event is Jada Faison, one of the impressive freshman girls track and field athletes at Rosary.

The meet begins Friday at 3 p.m. with Friday’s Distance Carnival for the 800, 1,600 and 3,200. Saturday’s schedule starts with girls frosh-soph 100 hurdles at 9 a.m. Parking is plentiful at Trabuco Hills High School.

Admission is $9 for adults, $6 for adults 70 and older and for high school students and $3 for all others.

And coming up is the Arcadia Invitational on April 7 and 8 and the Orange County Championships on April 15 and the Mt. SAC Relays on April 14 and 15.

And away we go …

NOTES

Orange County boys basketball player of the year Brandon Benjamin said he transferred from Canyon to Mater Dei to broaden his skills and to get more exposure. As for the exposure reason, Canyon did play this past season in The Classic at Damien, Southern California’s best boys basketball tournament, and in that tournament’s top division, Platinum Division. …

Memory says that Benjamin is the only O.C. boys basketball player to transfer out of his school in the same school year in which he was the county player of the year. …

Among the players it was difficult to not find a place for on the All-Orange County boys basketball team are Tyler Howard of Canyon, Cooper Stearns of Irvine, Alex Stewart of Pacifica Christian, Isaiah Tolmaire of Mission Viejo and Owen Verna of Mater Dei. …

Josh Beaty is the new boys basketball coach at Fountain Valley. Beaty coached Crean Lutheran to a CIF-SS championship in 2018 and most recently coached at Buena Park. He replaces Roger Holmes, who coached the Barons for just the 2022-23 season and will continue as athletic director there. …

The Loara Tournament baseball championship game finally will be played – and how often have we seen this group of words this season – weather and field conditions permitting, Friday at 3 p.m. at Brookhurst Park in Anaheim. Pacifica and Villa Park advanced to the tournament’s championship game. …

The Michelle Carew Classic, which veteran sportswriter Harold Abend calls “the grandmother of all softball tournaments,” was scheduled to begin Wednesday but it’s another outdoor sport messed with by the weather. The tournament, named for the late daughter of all-time baseball great Rod Carew, includes many CalHiSports.com state top 25 teams like No. 1 St. Francis of Mountain View, No. 6 Los Alamitos, No. 7 Marina, No. 8 Orange Lutheran, No. 9 Esperanza and No. 10 Pacifica. The updated schedule can be found online at tourneymachine.com. …

Carissa Quereshi and Saiheron Preciado of Marina and Newport Harbor’s Eduarda Rodrigues were champions this past weekend at the High School Nationals girls wrestling tournament in Virginia. Kylee Golz was a second-place finisher. El Dorado’s Isaiah Quintero was a champion there in the boys tournament.

​ Orange County Register 

Dodgers place Ryan Pepiot on IL with oblique injury to start season

• March 31, 2023

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers announced their season-opening roster Thursday morning with nine players starting out on the injured list.

One of them was an unexpected addition.

Right-hander Ryan Pepiot will open the season on the sidelines with a strained oblique muscle in his left side. Pepiot had been slated to fill Tony Gonsolin’s spot in the starting rotation while Gonsolin recovers from a spring ankle injury. Instead, right-hander Michael Grove will take that spot and make his first start on Monday against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium.

“I’m pretty disappointed. I’m pretty bummed,” said Pepiot, who had edged Grove in the spring battle for a rotation spot. “It was pretty disappointing coming in yesterday and getting the news.

“It was a dream come true being told I made the roster. But I’m just happy we caught it pretty early so it wouldn’t linger too long.”

Pepiot had one spring start cut short on March 17 against the Cubs when he felt tightness in his lower back. The oblique issue is “different,” he said, and it first cropped up during a night start in Peoria, Ariz., on March 22.

“The back thing in Mesa was just kind of stiffness from sitting between innings,” he said. “That was more lower back. This is all side, ribs.”

Pepiot struggled in his final preseason start, throwing 86 pitches but not getting through four innings in the Freeway Series finale against the Angels.

“The past couple weeks there’s just been a little lingering oblique,” he said. “I tried to throw through it the other day (against the Angels), thought it would be fine. After the first inning, I just felt it even more. Tried to battle through it, probably overcompensated and woke up really sore yesterday.”

Gonsolin has begun throwing off a mound but is not expected back before the end of April after eventually going on a minor-league injury rehabilitation assignment. Pepiot will not do any throwing for a few days until the symptoms subside. How long it takes for him to be ready to pitch again remains to be seen.

“When you hear oblique … what that says to us is to be extra careful so it doesn’t linger,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “So I think that’s kind of where we’re at with that.”

FINE WINE

All of the Dodgers’ players and coaches found a bottle of wine in their lockers Thursday afternoon – a 2020 vintage Cabernet Sauvignon from Caymus Vineyards. They were Opening Day gifts from veteran outfielder Jason Heyward.

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Heyward said he felt it was “fitting for this group” and equated the wine-making process to a long baseball season, requiring patience, attention to detail and “a lot of grind.”

“At the end of the day, there is positivity at the end of that process,” Heyward said. “It’s something I wanted to give these guys to start, as we have a clean slate. Throughout this grind, we’ve got to have that positivity.”

ALSO

Shortstop Gavin Lux is with the Dodgers for the season-opening homestand and said he expects to be in Los Angeles for at least the first couple of months of his rehab from knee surgery performed three weeks ago. He will move his rehab to the Dodgers’ training complex in Arizona when he is able to do more. For now, his workouts are limited to range-of-motion exercises.

UP NEXT

Diamondbacks (RHP Merrill Kelly, 13-8, 3.37 ERA in 2022) at Dodgers (RHP Dustin May, 2-3, 4.50 ERA in 2022), Friday, 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM

​ Orange County Register 

Two-day OC festival all about making youth water wise

• March 31, 2023

While rain was still falling Thursday, March 30, several thousand students were learning about the importance of conservation for when it doesn’t.

More than 4,500 Orange County students participated in the Children’s Water Education Festival hosted by the Orange County Water District, which manages the region’s groundwater basin.

The third-, fourth- and fifth-graders were able to visit more than 50 hands-on activity booths and lectures, learning about water, pollution and the environment from local and state water agency experts.

“It is important to teach our youth about how to protect our precious resources like water and also to inspire the next generation of water leaders,” Gina Ayala, director of public affairs for the district, said.

This is the two-day festival’s 26th year – it was held on the UC Irvine campus.

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​ Orange County Register 

1-year-old, injured in pursuit that ended in Long Beach crash, is released from hospital

• March 31, 2023

A 1-year-old child injured in a deadly pursuit crash in Long Beach has left the hospital, authorities said on Thursday, March 30.

The conditions of the other five people taken to the hospital were not disclosed.

The pursuit began in Seal Beach on Tuesday, March 28, when, authorities say, Chaz Lamar Long, 39, jumped into the driver’s seat of a car that had been pulled over by Seal Beach police and sped away. A woman, who had been driving, and the child were also inside the 2006 Lexus sedan.

Five minutes later, Long crashed at Second Street and Pacific Coast Highway, entangling eight other vehicles as well.

RELATED COVERAGE: Seal Beach police pursuit ends in crash in Long Beach

Toronto resident Sara Nicole Shorteno, 74, was killed. Long was booked on suspicion of various charges, including murder.

​ Orange County Register 

Read Donald Trump’s full statement after his New York indictment

• March 31, 2023

This is the full statement by Donald Trump provided moments after he was indicted by a grand jury in New York:

Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America

“This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history. From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and even before I was sworn in as your President of the United States, the Radical Left Democrats – the enemy of the hard-working men and women of this Country – have been engaged in a Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement. You remember it just like I do: Russia, Russia, Russia; the Mueller Hoax; Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine; Impeachment Hoax 1; Impeachment Hoax 2; the illegal and unconstitutional Mar-a-Lago raid; and now this.

“The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable – indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference.

“Never before in our Nation’s history has this been done. The Democrats have cheated countless times over the decades, including spying on my campaign, but weaponizing our justice system to punish a political opponent, who just so happens to be a President of the United States and by far the leading Republican candidate for President, has never happened before. Ever.

“Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who was hand-picked and funded by George Soros, is a disgrace. Rather than stopping the unprecedented crime wave taking over New York City, he’s doing Joe Biden’s dirty work, ignoring the murders and burglaries and assaults he should be focused on. This is how Bragg spends his time!

“I believe this Witch-Hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden. The American people realize exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here. Everyone can see it. So our Movement, and our Party – united and strong – will first defeat Alvin Bragg, and then we will defeat Joe Biden, and we are going to throw every last one of these Crooked Democrats out of office so we can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

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​ Orange County Register 

Even the Sonoran Desert is threatened by climate change

• March 31, 2023

The same climate changes known to be reshaping mountain ecosystems in places like the Alps and Yosemite also are driving alarming new patterns in the Sonoran Desert near Palm Springs, according to the latest findings from a long-running study by UC Riverside.

If temperatures continue to rise and droughts continue to become more severe, the study suggests that portions of the Sonoran and similar deserts someday could become barren, with little plant or animal life.

“These ecosystems are incredibly fragile, actually,” said Tesa Madsen-Hepp, an ecology doctoral candidate at UCR and first author of the study. “They’re not super resilient, and they are reaching their limits.”

The findings, which track changes measured over several decades, are surprising to some scientists who had assumed that deserts and other dryland ecosystems would be resilient to more extreme heat and prolonged drought. Instead, Madsen-Hepp said that unless we get greenhouse gas emissions under control, and stop or reverse the current global warming trajectory, the planet is on track to create stretches of desert that are “completely collapsed.” Such a change, she added, would affect humanity “in a lot of different ways.”

“Not just in terms of losing species that we love. But by changing how nutrients and water are being cycled and filtered through those ecosystems.”

Ocotillo growing in the Boyd Deep Canyon Reserve, south of Palm Desert. This is one of the plants moving into lower-elevation territory where other taller species are declining. (Photo courtesy of Boyd Reserve)

Locally, such trends may be hitting the Sonoran Desert first, since it is one of the hottest and driest stretches of North America. But if warming trends continue, Madsen-Hepp said there’s no reason to suspect the pattern won’t also play out in parts of the neighboring Mojave Desert and in drylands globally, which make up some 45% of land on Earth.

“Other dryland ecosystems are likely headed in this direction if we continue to see rising temperatures and greater atmospheric demand on the plants,” she said. “The timing of this ecosystem shift change will probably vary. But I think that we could expect to see similar things in general as these ecosystems reach similar levels.”

There’s solid research to show how climate change is forcing plant populations that grow in temperate climates to adjust in all sorts of ways. Trees around the world are moving further north and west, and they’re growing faster but dying younger. Some plants are moving to lower elevations, where climate change is bringing torrential rains to once-dry valleys, while other plants are creeping up mountain slopes in search of cooler temperatures and steadier moisture.

This global redisruption of species also is expanding the risk of diseases, such as malaria, along with crop-threatening funguses and pests. That, in turn, is leading to more food insecurity, which can turn residents of some communities into climate refugees.

While rising temperatures are expected to make desert climates tougher for humans to tolerate, Madsen-Hepp said desert plant life was assumed to be almost immortal. But after her full-time crew of four spent six months gathering 84 football fields worth of data she no longer believes that to be true.

The newer work was possible thanks to botanist Jan Zabriskie, who established a study area while working for the UC system in 1977 at the Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center. Zabriskie stretched out a tape measure across 400 meters, documenting every plant species that touched the line. That process was repeated 21 times, with new linear transects every 150 meters, starting from the desert scrub ecosystem of the low-lying Coachella Valley, moving up through the pinyon-juniper woodlands into the chaparral ecosystem, and finishing with the coniferous forest some 8,000 feet up.

Another research team repeated those plant surveys in 2008. And Madsen-Hepp’s team did it again in 2019, with their findings comparing the changes since 1977 recently published in the journal “Functional Ecology.”

One surprising finding was that populations of species long thought to be very hardy, such as California juniper and pinyon pines, are shrinking or shifting to higher elevations much like the changes seen in alpine forests. But even higher up, Madsen-Hepp said, these species don’t appear to be thriving. Instead, with climate warming, she said, “they’re basically reaching their physiological thresholds.”

Another surprise was that in the years since the previous reports, some higher-elevation  plant species have moved lower, to hotter parts of the desert. Shorter, shrub-style plants, such as brittlebrush and ocotillo, are replacing those pines and the newer arrivals have shallower root systems, meaning they can grow faster and without a need for deep soil water. Such water increasingly is scarce in the wake of long droughts followed by more volatile rains, the weather pattern that has hit California this winter.

That shift in plant life is bad news for several reasons, Madsen-Hepp said.

First, such shrubs store less carbon than the pines and other plants they’re replacing. In that way, much like the findings of another recent study out of UCR, climate change appears to be fueling itself.

Second, Madsen-Hepp said broader research shows this is likely the last stage before a shift to bare ground. Since the shrubs replacing hardier plants in these areas don’t live as long, or have the same adaptive strategies, she said the climate can become too hot and dry for their long-term survival.

“We are really reaching the edge of a habitable ecosystem for plants to live in,” she said. “So I think that’s pretty alarming.”

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Next up, Madsen-Hepp is using the same data to dig deeper into how plant species in this slice of the Sonoran Desert interact with each other, as they cooperate and compete for resources. Those shifting relationships also can affect plant interactions with pollinators, other organisms dependent on the soil and desert wildlife. In the Sonoran, that includes everything from desert tortoises and Gila monsters to coyotes and bighorn sheep.

Madsen-Hepp said she hopes this work helps people see desert environments as vulnerable and vital, and that it motivates them to take steps to protect these places.

“As we continue to dump carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere and warm the planet, all of these ecosystems are tipping,” she said. “It’s just a matter of when and how much warming “

​ Orange County Register