Cal State Fullerton baseball center fielder Mitch Berryhill comes off as easygoing, laid-back guy, unless you are an opposing pitcher facing him from the mound.

“When I come up to bat, I’m ready to attack. I just know I’m better than the pitcher – that’s the mentality you must have,” said Berryhill. “If you go up to the plate with confidence, you will have a higher chance of success.”

That aggressive approach has worked wonders for the senior from Utah. Berryhill finished the season hitting .415, giving him the fifth highest single-season batting average in school history. He’s also has a .493 on-base percentage.

The left-handed hitter who had racked up eight doubles, three triples and 27 RBIs before the last series of the year, cited off-season workouts as well as an increased comfort level at the plate for his breakout season. In the final game of the season, the center fielder went 3-for-5 on the day with two runs.

“I just settled down a little more and got used to Division 1 pitching. Having a lot more experience makes a huge difference,” said Berryhill, 24, who transferred to Fullerton from Salt Lake City Community College as a junior.

“My teammates joke that I’m just seeing beach balls,” he said. “But I’m taking some deeper breaths in the box, and the game has slowed down a lot for me this season.”

First baseman Jake Pavletich marvels at his teammate’s all-around game.

“He’s the fastest dude I’ve ever played with. Whether it’s tracking down a ball in the outfield or beating a throw to first, he can really move. It’s incredible to watch him do so well.

“He’s really enjoying his last year in the college environment. He’s much more comfortable, and you can see that in his dominating performance on the field.”

Titan assistant coach Chad Baum, who recruited Berryhill, said he’s had “one of the best seasons ever with the bat in Titan history. Mitch already had a good swing when he got here. A lot of his success came from his bunting game combined with his great speed.”

Baum noted Berryhill struggled offensively early in the year.

In the first week of April, the two watched game film to analyze Berryhill’s swing, reviewing his popouts, groundouts and strikeouts as well as his hits. A few days later, the Titans traveled north for a three-game series against Cal Poly.

Berryhill had a career weekend in San Luis Obispo. He hit .833 (10-for-12) with four walks and a hit-by-pitch, reaching base 15 times in 17 plate appearances as the Titans won two out of three games. That performance earned him Big West Baseball Field Player of the Week honors.

“His weekend at Cal Poly was amazing,” said Titan head coach Rick Vanderhook. “He got a really good feel for his swing. It was hit after hit.”

The 6-foot-tall Berryhill, who at one point this season reached base in 47 consecutive games, moved into the second position in the lineup during the Cal Poly series. “I think I’ve almost batted in every spot in my two years at Fullerton. The coaches trust me to get the job done. I’ve been very comfortable hitting second. I have the speed to put bunts down, and my hitting game is strong.”

Baum agreed. “Mitch is a guy who has a lot of success when he has a lot of at-bats. He is an excellent bunter who unselfishly moves runners along. He is pretty darn good after he takes the first pitch. When you run that fast, you have an ability to do things that others can’t.”

Berryhill hails from Smithfield, Utah, which is about 75 miles north of Salt Lake City. He attended Sky View High School, where he was a four-year baseball performer. He played wide receiver on the school’s football team for three years before giving baseball his undivided attention as a senior.

A natural-born hitter, he batted .550 as a junior and .480 as a senior but received no offers from Division 1 schools. He then served a two-year Church of Latter-day Saints mission, which started with a four-month stint in Mexico City. He then split his remaining time between Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso.

“I learned Spanish and embraced the Mexican culture,” said Berryhill. “The people are amazing, and the food is fantastic. I’ve used Spanish a lot, conversing with [teammate] Sahid Valenzuela and other teammates over the years. And if I go to a Mexican restaurant, I’ll speak Spanish to the staff.

“I grew up a lot and matured during my mission. It prepared me for life outside of my home. I learned to overcome problems and work things out on my own.”

After his two-year church commitment, he enrolled at Salt Lake Community College. He regained his baseball swing, hitting .433 as a freshman and being named the team’s Defensive Player of the Year. His team was playing in a season-ended tournament in Las Vegas when Berryhill caught the eye of Fullerton’s Baum.

“I was there to scout DJ Peters, an outfielder who was playing for Western Nevada College,” said Baum. “I saw this blond-haired kid make a great catch and throw out a runner at the plate. He got hits, stole bases. I was wondering, ‘Who is this guy?’ “

The Titans failed to land Peters, who signed a contract with the Dodgers. But Baum contacted Berryhill after the tournament and the two stayed in touch. The coach braved wind and rain in the Beehive State the next year while scouting Berryhill, who hit .340 as a sophomore.

“One game was delayed until a storm passed. Mitch was 3-for-3 with two triples and a double. He was a great find. It was a matter of getting lucky and building a relationship with him,” said Baum, who signed Berryhill midway through that season.

Fullerton then sent Berryhill to Fairbanks to play for the Alaska Goldpanners in a collegiate summer league. “It was an awesome – a great experience. I made a lot of good friends in summer ball and enjoyed playing some games in Canada,” said Berryhill, who hit .400 for the Goldpanners.

At Fullerton, Berryhill quickly became the starting center fielder. He hit .295 with eight doubles, three triples and 23 RBIs. He finished with a .384 on-base-percentage, was third in the nation with 21 sacrifice bunts and was named Big West Honorable Mention.

Berryhill said the Titans’ final game in 2018 helped motivate him for this season. In a dramatic showdown, visiting Washington beat Fullerton 6-5 in a 10 innings to capture the Super Regional series two games to one.

“That was one of the best games I was ever part of,” said Berryhill, who scored a tying run in the ninth inning. Titan second baseman Hank LoForte hit a go-ahead homer in the 10th before Washington rallied in the bottom half of the inning. “That game fueled me to get better and it kept the fire in my system,” Berryhill said.

“This has been a tough year for the team. We faced more adversity. But I see only good things for this program for years to come,” he said.

Berryhill said he made a smooth transition from Smithfield, a city of 11,000 that is predominately white, to Cal State Fullerton, a campus of 40,000 students with diverse backgrounds.

“It didn’t take time to adjust at all,” he said. “I love meeting everyone I can. Everyone has a story, and I want to hear their stories.”

A communications major with an emphasis on public relations, Berryhill said that some of his Salt Lake Community College credits did not transfer to Fullerton and he plans to eventually complete his degree. He envisions a post-baseball career in some type of sales. “I really enjoy talking with people, so that would be a road to follow.”

Berryhill likes to travel and has taken trips to Cancun, Mexico, Yellowstone National Park and many locales in the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain states. In his native Utah, Berryhill likes boating and swimming at lakes, hiking and skiing in the mountains and riding all-terrain vehicles. He said he likes spending time at the beaches of Orange County.

His father, John, is a physical therapist who operates his own clinic. His mother, Kristi, serves as office manager at the clinic as well as working in real estate. He has two brothers, Travis, 31, and Geoffrey, 20, and a sister, Brittany, 28. His brothers played high school football, while his sister was a soccer player.

Berryhill’s parents occasionally see him play in person and live stream his games at home.

“I helped coach him on his high school baseball team, and I could see the potential,” said his father. “Mitch has always had a pretty good work ethic, and he’s blessed with natural talents. I figured eventually he would find his niche and excel.”

“He was a good wide receiver in high school with great speed. But he could see that baseball was the thing that would take him places. It was a bit of serendipity that coach Baum noticed him at the Las Vegas tournament.”

Berryhill said he often talks with former Titans who are playing professionally. He keeps in touch with his former roommates Tommy Wilson and Andrew Quezada, who are pitching in the Mets and Rockies organizations, respectively, and Scott Hurst, a member of the Cardinals system.

He also heard from scouts ahead of the three-day Major League Baseball draft, which began Monday. “I’ve heard from some teams, and I’m excited for the future. But it’s very unpredictable,” said Berryhill.

Pavletich, his teammate, gives Berryhill a ringing endorsement. “He is the most genuine, heartfelt person. He knows when to laugh and when to be serious.

“I think he would succeed at the next level because of the way he attacks the game on a daily basis. If he gets a shot, any team that takes him will be lucky to have him.”

LOS ANGELES — To be a Dodger position player these days, you pretty much have to roll with whatever situation you find yourself in.

Your position, your slot in the batting order, whether you’re in or out of the lineup on a given day … it’s all fluid. The better you can handle it all, the more successful you’ll be.

Which makes David Freese maybe the perfect player for this team, and this mode of roster construction. Even when he has to deal with the unanticipated – as he did Sunday afternoon against the Phillies, when Matt Beaty went out after four innings with a hip flexor strain and Freese had to grab his first baseman’s mitt on short notice – he makes it work.

As in a go-ahead home run in the seventh to break a 0-0 tie. Or a leaping stab of a Bryce Harper scorcher to end the eighth. Or a run-scoring single, followed by a rumbling, stumbling dash from first to home when Yacksel Rios fielded Chris Taylor’s sacrifice bunt and threw it into right field, part of a seven-run eighth inning in the Dodgers’ 8-0 victory.

Normally, the 36-year-old Freese at least has some advance notice of when he’s starting, or at what point he’ll enter a game if the other side changes to a left-handed pitcher. But he just may be the model for the modern version of The Dodger Way To Play Baseball, which stresses flexibility, malleability and adjustability.

“He epitomizes a lot of what we’re about,” manager Dave Roberts said Sunday afternoon.

When the Dodgers acquired Freese from Pittsburgh last Aug. 31 at the waiver trade deadline, they had an idea what they were getting: a versatile player with a history of clutch performance who could provide added stability and leadership in the clubhouse.

That he accepted the Dodgers’ emphasis on depth and flexibility right away made the transition seamless.

“For him to buy into that initially, right off the bat, was big,” Roberts recalled. “The first day we got him, he said that whatever I need of him or whatever we need of him, he’s in. That kind of defused everything.”

Accepting it, he said, didn’t mean he totally understood the concept. But it didn’t take long once he got into the middle of it.

“I understood Andrew Friedman, Farhan (Zaidi, former general manager), all those guys and how they run their system and do things, and with Doc (Roberts) and them all working together,” Freese said. “And I came over here and got in there right away and started to really identify with what they’re trying to accomplish and how they’re going to go about it.

“And I’m all for it. You know, it’s good. It keeps us loose. They just put us in good positions. They prepare so well that they understand the matchups. They understand the situations. They think ahead, not only for the game that day but in the future. It’s not easy, whether it’s managing the bullpen or keeping your guys loose or whatever.”

It’s sort of a circle of life, though Freese says he and the veterans learn as much from the young guys in this clubhouse as vice versa. Back when he broke into the majors, with a veteran Cardinals roster in 2009 managed by Tony La Russa, any example the young guys were expected to set was one of keeping your head down and staying humble.

“I think me and Colby Rasmus were really the only rookies,” he recalled. “Tony didn’t like having young guys. He liked the guys who’ve been around and know what they’re doing, and I appreciate Tony giving me that chance. He saw something and rode it out.”

That Cardinals team – for which Freese, in 2011, would ultimately deliver a World Series Game 7 opportunity with a game-tying triple followed by an 11th-inning walkoff homer in Game 6 – was studded with veterans and stars: Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright among others. But Freese said he was drawn most to veteran infielder Mark DeRosa, who was acquired by St. Louis in 2009 after Freese injured his ankle.

“He was … a little younger at that point, but kind of at the stage I’m at,” Freese said. “I just didn’t ask too many questions with those guys, but definitely I’ve always watched the older guys and how they’ve gone about it, just kind of picked their brains now and then.”

He’s paying that example forward, and the young guys who pay attention will benefit.

“Coaches coach and teach,” Roberts said. “But sometimes it’s more impactful – a lot of times it’s more impactful – where you have veterans like David and Rich (Hill): How they prepare, how they go about things, and having conversations with our younger players, teaching them how to go about being a pro.”

With this club, in particular, that involves being ready for anything, any time, anywhere.

LOS ANGELES – Billy Gasparino, the Dodgers’ draft director, said his wife gets a good laugh out of his social media habits.

“I haven’t posted anything once but I’m on all the time,” Gasparino said. “She’s rolling her eyes at me like I’m a teenage kid.”

In 2019, even an amateur scouting director can’t ignore the wealth of freely available video clips shared by college and (especially) high school baseball prospects. Social media has become a free resource, a scouting addendum of sorts for every team’s war room.

Its influence will be felt this week during Major League Baseball’s amateur draft, which begins at 4 p.m. Pacific Time Monday.

The first two rounds will be held Monday night and shown on MLB Network. The draft will continue with Round 3 beginning 10 a.m. Tuesday and end with Round 40 on Wednesday.

The Angels hold the 15th pick in Round 1. The Dodgers will draft 25th and 31st, the latter pick awarded as compensation for losing last year’s first-round draft pick, pitcher J.T. Ginn, who chose to attend Mississippi State.

The Baltimore Orioles hold the number-1 pick. Adley Rutschman, a catcher from Oregon State, is expected to be the first player off the board. The Beavers were eliminated from the College World Series on their home turf Saturday, but Rutschman has already demonstrated his greatness: a 1.344 on-base plus slugging percentage, including 17 home runs, in his junior season behind the plate.

UCLA first baseman Michael Toglia could become the first local college player to leave the board. The junior had a .316 batting average with 13 home runs and 53 RBIs in 53 games through Saturday. UCLA second baseman Chase Strumpf might follow soon after.

Gasparino believes the draft will favor college hitters and high school pitchers, at least in the early rounds. And the same information explosion that benefits an amateur scout is benefitting amateur players, too.

“The information, the instruction – just the information out there is more,” Gasparino said. “They can find anything they want through Google, Twitter or Instagram: drills, packages, hitting devices. They can go the other way too much, but I think the information is better. We’re seeing more advanced high school players from all areas of the country.

“It used to be California, Florida, Texas where guys were stronger, bigger, faster, better instructed. I think that’s been one of the benefits of all this: it’s opened the country up.”

Want proof? Look no further than the Angels’ and Dodgers’ recent drafts.

Angels general manager Billy Eppler used his last two first-round draft picks on high school outfielders from North Carolina (Jordyn Adams in 2018) and Kentucky (Jo Adell in 2017). Dodgers GM Andrew Friedman selected Ginn from a Mississippi high school last year.

And while three California high schoolers were chosen in the first round in 2017, and four a year ago, ESPN’s Keith Law did not project a single California high school player to be drafted in the first round in his latest mock draft. Other mock drafts project Eastlake High School third baseman Keoni Cavaco to be chosen as high as 15th, by the Angels.

While social media might not unearth a never-before-seen draft prospect, Gasparino said the right video might cause him to give a player already on his radar a second look. He said the Dodgers’ draft team has a Twitter account specifically devoted to following draft picks; he checks the account daily.

“You’re surprised at how many guys are out there at the high school level (for whom the Dodgers) have film of these guys,” he said.

Just don’t expect the account to tweet its intentions for the draft.

The Chapman University baseball team survived two elimination games Sunday to stay alive in the NCAA Division III championship tournament at Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The Panthers (40-12) scored four runs in the top of the 10th inning to claim an 8-4 victory over UMass.-Boston Sunday night, after first staving off elimination with an 8-4 victory over Washington and Jefferson earlier in the day.

The victories set up another game against UMass-Boston (37-12) Monday at 10 a.m. PT, this time for the right to play in the national championship best-of-three series.

A bases-loaded walk to Drew Littwin followed by Aaron Wong’s two-run single and a fielding error in the UMass-Boston outfield provided the margin of victory for Chapman in the second game. Sophomore closer Nick Garcia pitched the final three innings for the Panthers and did not allow a base runner. The All-American struck out three and got the win that improves his record to 9-0.

Garcia figured prominently in the first game Sunday, entering in the eighth inning against Washington and Jefferson and retiring six batters in a row to earn his 11th save of the season. The Panthers got three hits from Henry Zeisler, two hits and two RBIs each from Brad Shimabuku and Alex Tsuruda and benefited from four Washington and Jefferson errors to pull away.

Cody Turner and Garcia combined for six innings of scoreless relief in the victory, with Turner escaping a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the fourth with minimal damage, allowing the tying run to score on a single, then ending the inning with a popout and double play.

The Panthers’ pitching staff combined for eight strikeouts in the second game for 507 total strikeouts this season, breaking the NCAA Division III single-season strikeout record set in 1998 by North Carolina Wesleyan.

Zeisler and Wong both went 3 for 5 in the second game.

LOS ANGELES – UCLA’s Nick Nastrini had not pitched since Feb. 26, no thanks to thoracic outlet syndrome. To be put into the spot he was put into Sunday night, was really something.

Even though he had not pitched in over three months, all he had to do was keep the Bruins in the game against Loyola Marymount in the L.A. Regional.

A loss would have ended UCLA’s season because the No. 1-ranked Bruins were sent to the loser’s bracket after a loss to the Lions on Saturday night.

Nastrini (1-0) was terrific, pitching five fine innings. He gave up just one run on four hits whilestriking out seven and walking one. Combine that with three more home runs, giving the Bruins seven for the day, and UCLA defeated LMU 6-1 before 1,957 at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

The same two teams will play again Monday night at 7 for the regional title and the right to advance to the super regional.

UCLA (50-9) – ranked No. 1 in the nation – had to defeat Baylor earlier in the day to stay alive. The Bruins hit four out of the park in that one.

LMU is 34-24.

Regarding Nastrini, Bruins coach John Savage put it best when he said, “Tonight, really the story was Nick Nastrini. I can’t say enough for his discipline over that time, his dedication to the weight room and throwing program.”

Sitting in front of reporters post-game, Nastrini explained he had surgery to correct his condition before he was cleared to return.

“After I got cleared, I was really thinking I was just going to be more of a mid-relief kind of guy, not really going to start,” said Nastrini, a freshman. “But coming into tonight, I was prepared.”

LMU’s Steven Chavez was somewhat impressed by Nastrini.

“Their starting pitcher was just locating his pitches well early in the game and made it tough on us,” he said.

UCLA got on the board early when Michael Toglia hit a long home run over the 330-foot sign in left field. The ball hit a red car sitting well beyond the fence. It was No. 16 for Toglia, who also homered in the earlier game against Baylor.

The Bruins, who hit four home runs in that day game, added yet another in the top of the third when Chase Strumpf belted a three-run home run off southpaw starter Matt Voelker for a 4-0 lead over the Lions. Strumpf drove in Matt McLain and Ryan Kreidler, both of whom singled.

“I tip my cap to UCLA and the way they hit the ball tonight,” LMU coach Jason Gill said.

The home run for Strumpf was his eighth.

“I mean, I think that just speaks to our approach,” Strumpf said. “A lot of guys are just trying to go middle of the field and when you have that approach, it tends to translate to maybe a lift to left field or something like that.

“But none of us are trying to hit home runs.”

UCLA went up 5-0 in the fourth on a home run by Jeremy Ydens. Noah Cardenas drew a walk, then Jack Stronach was safe at first on a bunt; he was initially ruled out, the Bruins challenged and won.

That chased Voelker (2-5) in favor of Kyle Mora, who got the final two outs of the inning without further damage.

The Lions finally got something going against starting pitcher Nastrini in the bottom of the fifth when they loaded the bases with one out. The best LMU could do was a sacrifice fly by Nick Sogard for a run to cut its deficit to 5-1.

Up next was Kenny Oyama and he was struck out by Nastrini for the third out.

Nate Hadley relieved Nastrini to start the sixth and gave up a single to Brandon Shearer to lead off the inning. Nothing materialized for the Lions, though, because Hadley buckled down and ended the inning on a double-play ball hit by Chavez.

Hadley and Holden Powell each pitched two scoreless innings. Hadley had two strikeouts, Powell had three for a team total of 12.

UCLA banged out 11 hits, LMU had just five.

Socialism has become the popularly discussed alternative to capitalism in the today’s political environment.

Explicit socialist advocates, like Sen. Bernie Sanders, and softer socialist advocates, like many of the other leading Democratic candidates for president, argue that America’s free market economic system. They point to failures in our present economic system and call for its replacement.

This contrast between two great systems of economic organization is irrelevant. The public policy debate will play out in discussion of incremental reforms not wholesale revolutionary replacement of an economic system.

The terms of an alternative discussion have been well known in American politics for more than 125 years: can we use antitrust laws to protect competition in our economy from the accumulations of market power?

Antitrust has divided candidates for public office since the Sherman Act was passed in 1890—and not always in a predictable manner. Republican presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft were our nation’s first “trust-busters.”  Democratic president Woodrow Wilson toughened the Sherman Act with an anti-merger law in 1914.

Franklin Roosevelt found the accumulation of economic power one of the causes of the Great Depression, and ran against Herbert Hoover’s permitting it to occur. Lyndon Johnson started the case against the phone monopoly; the actual break-up took place under Ronald Reagan. Reagan ushered in an era of antitrust enforcement more based on economic theory than visceral antagonism to big business; that trend was followed under Clinton and Obama.

President Clinton’s antitrust chief, Anne Bingaman, was a disciple of Reagan’s, William Baxter. President Obama’s Justice Department expanded the category of mergers that would be given a pass, and President Trump announced his desire to apply antitrust laws to Amazon, even in the absence of any specific law violation — a view supported only on the left of the spectrum of academic economists.

It would be entirely natural, therefore, for antitrust policy to surface as an issue of contrast between the presidential candidates. All mainstream economists, whether they lean right or left politically, believe that free market capitalism can be corrupted by the accumulation of market power in the hands of a few. Antitrust laws are designed to keep the free market capitalist system working. How can they be made more effective?

Here is a set of facts around which the debate can proceed.

One candidate for president, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, has introduced legislation to address the problems caused by recent mergers in so many industries. She sets dollar limits on the size of companies merging, above which the companies would have to show that a merger would not “materially lessen competition.” For the five years after a merger, the company would have to report on the merger’s effect on pricing and availability of goods and services.

Rather than advocate replacement of capitalism by socialism, the contrast of ideas on how to improve the functioning of our capitalist system through the antitrust laws would draw on an analysis of practicality. That alone would be beneficial for the tone of debate in this presidential contest.

Tom Campbell is a Professor of Law and Professor of Economics at Chapman University. He teaches antitrust and microeconomics. He was the Director of the Bureau of Competition, the antitrust arm of the Federal Trade Commission, in the Reagan Administration.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget plan, revised in May, now calls for $101.8 billion in education spending. A press release from the governor’s office trumpeted the budget’s high spending levels, “The budget invests in K-12 schools by providing approximately $5,000 more per pupil than eight years ago, including additional investments to assist students with the greatest needs. It also increases the ongoing funding for Special Education by almost $200 million compared to the January budget proposal.

While California’s education dollars are now being allocated more effectively thanks to the state’s Local Control Funding Formula, adopted in 2013, these dollars still aren’t being used as productively as they could be.

School finance formulas are notoriously complex. While some federal and state education dollars have strings attached, school districts generally have the final say over how resources are divvied up among their individual schools, which is especially true in California. Most school districts in Southern California, including Los Angeles Unified, Long Beach Unified, Santa Ana Unified, San Bernardino Unified, and Riverside Unified, do this by employing full-time equivalent budgeting. This system distributes funding to individual schools based on the number of staffing positions they are allocated. For instance, under full-time equivalent (FTE) budgeting, schools may be assigned one teacher for every 25 students.

Ample research shows FTE budgeting tends to shortchange the schools and students in low-income communities. A comprehensive study by the U.S. Department of Education found school districts consistently spend less money per pupil at the schools with the most low-income students. A study by Marguerite Roza and Paul T. Hill found similar-sized schools in the same school district can have wild funding discrepancies of up to $1 million, largely because the schools in low-income areas often end up with less experienced, lower paid teachers and FTE budgeting doesn’t account for these salary differentials.

But that’s not all, FTE budgeting not only affects how much is doled out to each school but also how the funds are spent. School district officials dictate how the bulk of the money is spent. A typical principal has less control over his or her budget than you’d expect —typically having autonomy over less than five percent of their school’s budget. As a result, principals often lack the ability to spend money on the priorities they believe would most help their students and improve their schools.

To address these problems, school districts across the country, including in Boston, Denver, Indianapolis, and New York City, are adopting weighted-student funding systems that allocate education dollars directly to schools based on student needs. With weighted-student formula, each student receives a level of funding that follows them to their school, and principals have more autonomy on how to spend the money to best serve those students. Houston Independent School District was the first to do so in 1999 and research by Rice University found the policy has been successful in promoting equity and giving principals more say in spending decisions.

California’s state officials also have a role to play. Under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, signed by then-President Obama in 2015, states must now publicly report per-pupil expenditures at the school level. Since California has to get in compliance with this mandate, it should take the opportunity to simultaneously modernize the state’s reporting system to help give districts, principals, parents, and community stakeholders the information they need to make sound decisions. For example, a report could be created showing how funding levels compare across schools. Another report could highlight each districts’ most productive schools by comparing expenditures with outcomes.

California is investing significant funding in education and needs to ensure the money is used fairly and productively.

Aaron Garth Smith is the director of education policy at Reason Foundation. 

The Michelin Guide — that international rating system so powerful it makes fine dining European chefs quake in their toques — covered the entire state of California for the first time this year.

San Francisco has been continuously reviewed, but Los Angeles was last reviewed in 2010. A partnership with the Visit California tourism bureau was announced in March, making this expansion possible.

At a big reveal gala held at Huntington Beach’s Pasea Hotel & Spa on Monday, June 3, officials begin announcing winners at 5 p.m.

In a similar format to the Academy Awards, chefs and restaurateurs attending the festivities did not know if or how many stars they might receive. In the week leading up to the event, 151 restaurants had been anointed with Michelin’s Bib Gourmand designations, highlighting  “restaurants that serve high-quality meals which include two courses and a glass of wine or dessert for $40 or less.”

But the rest were in suspense until the announcements on Monday. When it was over, six restaurants in the region had been awarded two stars and 22 others received one star. No restaurants were designated for three stars.

According to the Michelin Guide’s website, the ratings provide “A handy travel reference for exploratory drivers, a one-star rating denotes a very good restaurant in its category; a two-star restaurant serves excellent cooking that are worth a detour; and three-star restaurants are places with exceptional cooking worth a special trip for.”

Decor and service ratings are included with knife and fork or pavilion symbols, but the stars, focusing on cuisine, get most of the attention.

Here’s the list of restaurants honored with the number of stars bestowed.

Two stars

n/naka, Culver City: “Offers a clever, modern take on kaiseki at this dazzling dining room. … The chef’s stellar skills and technique are visible in every dish.”

Providence, Los Angeles: “Provides a consistently excellent meal with skill and technique. The seafood-focused menu … impresses diners with each course.”

Somni, Beverly Hills: “Amazes diners with a stimulating experience that is a feast for the senses. Desserts are especially memorable and display attention to detail.”

Sushi Ginza Onodera, West Hollywood: “Stands out for excellent sushi technique and product. Even the miso soup is special and flavorful with a trio of aged miso pastes.”

Urasawa, Beverly Hills: “An exemplary sushi temple that showcases deep knowledge and tradition. The chef handles each morsel of fish himself in a display of world-class skill and expertise.”

Vespertine, Culver City: “Every dish oozes with personality and creativity. The innovative chef thrills diners with flavors, impressive technique and wholly unexpected dishes.”

One star

Addison, San Diego

Bistro Na’, Temple City

CUT, Beverly Hills

Dialogue, Santa Monica

Hana re, Costa Mesa

Hayato, Los Angeles

Kali, Los Angeles

Kato, Los Angeles

The Kitchen, Los Angeles

Le Comptoir, Los Angeles

Maude, Beverly Hills

Mori Sushi, Los Angeles

Nozawa Bar, Beverly Hills

Orsa & Winston, Los Angeles

Osteria Mozza, Los Angeles

Q Sushi, Los Angeles

Rustic Canyon, Santa Monica .

Shibumi, Los Angeles

Shin Sushi, Encino

Shunji, Los Angeles

Taco Maria, Costa Mesa

Trois Mec, Los Angeles

The 2019 Michelin Guide California will be available from major booksellers in the U.S. starting June 6 for $19.95.

Navy Judge Aaron Rugh has removed Cmdr. Chris Czaplak as prosecutor in the case of Edward “Eddie” Gallagher, a Navy SEAL accused of a series of war crimes including killing a teen ISIS fighter in 2017.

Rugh announced his decision Monday, June 3, in an email to the parties involved.

Tim Parlatore, Gallagher’s lead attorney, had requested the move, accusing prosecutors of a “rogue, relentless, and unlawful cyber campaign” that was used to find the source of news leaks discovered in January. He said that behavior may have violated attorney-client privilege and would hurt Gallagher’s chance for a fair trial.

Gallagher’s defense team also has made motions to consider whether there has been undue command influence in the case from officials in Washington, D.C.; and, ultimately, to dismiss the case.

“He only decided on the removal of the prosecutor related to his activities spying on the defense,” Parlatore said of Rugh. “It’s a step forward but not the ultimate goal. I will not stop until Eddie Gallagher is completely free.”

Parlatore said Rugh is expected to rule on the other motions on Wednesday.

“The judge ruled that the threat of investigation into alleged prosecutorial misconduct against Cmdr. Chris Czaplak could be seen as a conflict of interest,” Navy officials said.

Navy spokesman Brian O’Rourke, Monday evening, said the Navy is complying with the judge’s order.

“The senior trial counsel will be replaced by a qualified military attorney,” O’Rourke said. “Chief Petty Officer Gallagher is entitled to a fair trial and the Navy is committed to that principle.”

O’Rourke previously said if the prosecutor were removed from the case it would delay Gallagher’s court-martial. The trial is set to start June 10.

Rugh’s decision Monday is the latest in a series of twists in the case. Most recently, the judge freed Gallagher from custody, on Thursday, May 30, citing interference by prosecutors.

Parlatore and Marc Mukasey, a member of President Donald Trump’s legal team, discovered evidence in recent weeks that showed Czaplak had attached tracking devices to emails that were sent to at least 13 attorneys and the editor of the Navy Times. Czaplak admitted to the tracking but downplayed the technology’s capabilities. In court, Navy prosecutors said the email “auditing tools” they used were designed to detect the flow of emails without revealing their content.

“They’re calling it an audit tool when it is really a beacon,” Parlatore said previously. “It tracks IP addresses, sees when you open it, who you’re forwarding it to.”

Gallagher, a Special Warfare Operations Chief, was arrested Sept. 11 while being treated at Camp Pendleton’s Intrepid Spirit Center. The 19-year Navy veteran is accused of premeditated murder in the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old ISIS fighter. At the time, he was serving as a medic with Naval Special Warfare Group One based out of San Diego.

Two other charges — one accusing Gallagher of posing with the corpse of the teen while filming an enlistment video and one accusing him of flying a drone over the teen’s corpse — were thrown out during a Feb. 4 hearing.

Gallagher is also charged with shooting a man in June 2017 and a woman in July of that year, both civilians classified as “noncombatants,” according to charge sheets.

On Jan. 4, Gallagher was arraigned on charges of premeditated murder and assault with a deadly weapon. He pleaded “not guilty” to all war crimes he is accused of committing during his 2017 deployment in Iraq.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Briana Perez can laugh about it now. After she watched UCLA launch four home runs and dominate the No. 1 team in the country, the UCLA shortstop has no problem joking about what head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez called a “horrific” batting practice before one of the biggest games of the year.

“Coach can say she was trying to fix things, she literally made things worse,” Perez said laughing.

UCLA shook off its botched batting practice and exploded for a 16-3 thumping of top-ranked Oklahoma on Monday in Oklahoma City as the Bruins moved within one win of their first NCAA softball title since 2010.

Free from the mercy-rule limitation of eight runs after five innings, the No. 2 Bruins (55-6) scored 11 runs in the sixth and seventh innings, emptied their bench and set the largest margin of victory for a WCWS championship series game.

“They were telling me, they were passing the bat,” Inouye-Perez said. “They wanted opportunities for their teammates. … A big part of our success is their ability to play for each other.”

Oklahoma (57-5) is playing for its third national championship in four years, while the Bruins, the most decorated team in the sport, are trying to end the longest championship drought in program history.

UCLA can clinch the title Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. PT with a win over the Sooners, with the if-necessary Game 3 scheduled for Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. PT.

Before the game, Inouye-Perez wanted to make sure all her players went into the locker room feeling confident, so she brought them back for extra swings. But assistant coach Kirk Walker’s arm grew tired from throwing so many pitches. He threw six balls in a row. Players started fishing for pitches, missing and walking away with their heads down.

“Oh, this is great,” Inouye-Perez said with a sarcastic sigh as UCLA’s time ran out.

The coach pulled her players together and asked them to visualize the success that evaded them during batting practice. They were the top-scoring team in the WCWS. Remember what that felt like, she said.

Then outfielder Aaliyah Jordan delivered a first-inning solo home run and the Bruins instantly relaxed. They scored in every inning but the second, collected 16 hits against one of the best pitching staffs in the country and got hits from nine different players. Once senior Brianna Tautalafua ended her 0-for-24 hitting slump that had lasted nearly a month with a solo homer in the sixth inning, UCLA couldn’t be stopped.

Second baseman Kinsley Washington went 4 for 4 with an RBI double. Perez hit her first homer of the year with a three-run shot in the sixth, and pitcher Rachel Garcia had a team-high four RBIs.

“They absolutely cleaned our clocks,” OU head coach Patty Gasso said.

Knowing that Oklahoma pitcher Giselle Juarez, who had a 0.87 postseason ERA entering the championship game, was going to be difficult to crack, Inouye-Perez tasked her team with testing the Sooner defense.

Oklahoma was tied for the national lead in fielding percentage (.987) Monday, but committed four errors, including three on consecutive plays in the third inning. Gasso called it the team’s worst game of the season on the biggest stage.

With a commanding lead, Garcia finally rested for the first time in Oklahoma City, throwing just five innings, giving up three hits and one run. The two-time USA Softball Player of the Year threw 472 straight pitches for the Bruins at the WCWS before another pitcher took to the circle.

Freshman Megan Faraimo went one inning and allowed a one solo home run in the sixth. Sophomore Holly Azevedo pitched the final inning with three hits and one run allowed and the UCLA pitching staff’s lone strikeout.

Closing in on the program’s first NCAA title in nine years and the school’s 118th across all sports, Inouye-Perez said she needs her team to stay true to itself. The Bruins play selflessly and joyfully, laughing and dancing through tough situations like a failed batting practice.

“You can bet we’re doing the same thing tomorrow,” Inouye-Perez said with a smile.

It's a party and @UCLASoftball is hosting!#WCWS pic.twitter.com/4rrJGR8x8e

— NCAA Softball (@NCAAsoftball) June 4, 2019

Aaliyah Jordan
Briana Perez
Brianna Tautalafua
Rachel Garcia @UCLASoftball mashed 4⃣ home runs in a dominant #WCWS Championship Series Game 1 victory pic.twitter.com/oOrRuLzcVw

— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) June 4, 2019

The Dodgers powered up with their first two picks in this year’s draft, taking one of the NCAA’s leading home run hitters with their first-round pick and another power-hitting infielder with their second pick.

Between them – Tulane third baseman Kody Hoese and North Carolina infielder Michael Busch – hit 39 home runs this season.

“We liked that demographic and it just worked out in our favor in this draft. Extremely happy to get both of those college bats,” director of amateur scouting Billy Gasparino said. “We always like to search for those guys first and were happy to get them to come in those first two picks.”

Hoese was the Dodgers’ first choice, 25th overall. After hitting only five home runs in his freshman and sophomore seasons at Tulane (the alma mater of Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman), Hoese hit 23 home runs in 58 games as a junior this year. That led the NCAA in mid-May and was tied for fourth-highest at the end of the regular season 2019.

“That’s a great question. We asked that question ourselves,” Gasparino said of what powered the big jump. “I think it was really a combination of elements – getting a little stronger, getting a little more experience, improving his swing a little bit and really just understanding how to create leverage. All of those things added up to a monster year – 23 home runs, 20 doubles and just really high-end power output.”

Hoese finished the season with a .391 batting average, 61 RBIs and a 1.265 OPS. A native of Griffith, Ind., Hoese was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the 35th round of last year’s draft but did not sign. His defense at third base is “a real strength,” Gasparino said.

“His defense is plus,” Gasparino said. “We like two-way type players. I think he can play other positions. He’s a good athlete. He can run. So not only do we get power with Hoese, I think we can get plus-defense as well.”

The Dodgers also had the 31st pick overall as compensation for not signing their first-round pick a year ago, right-hander J.T. Ginn who went 8-4 with a 3.36 ERA as a freshman at Mississippi State.

They used the pick on more offense in Busch, who hit .290 with 16 home runs and 57 RBIs for the Tar Heels. Busch also hit .322 in the wood-bat Cape Cod League last summer and was named to the All-Cape Cod League.

A native of Minnesota, where he also played football and hockey in high school, Busch was primarily a first baseman at North Carolina but he also played left field and second base (in the Cape Cod League). The Dodgers plan to “challenge” him to play second base at the professional level.

“He’s basically done it in some practice settings. We’ve seen it in the Cape a little bit,” Gasparino said. “We think the kid has the physical skills and the makeup to try it and we’ll move off if needed. We know he can play first. We know he can play left. But we wanted to think in more of a positive mindset and challenge him.”

Busch said it was a dream come true just to get drafted and he’ll take that challenge gladly.

“I think offensively is the biggest contribution I’ll make,” he said. “Wherever they put me on the field is where I’m going to work hard.”

“He developed into one of our favorite right-handed high school pitchers,” Gasparino said. “He’s 6-6, 200 pounds, lean and lanky. We feel he took a huge jump in his coordination and the ability to repeat his delivery. He has two plus-pitches – 91-95 (mph fastball), locates down in the zone, the curveball is plus. We think he can really spin it, command it and execute it well.”

Lewis has committed to LSU but Gasparino said he was optimistic “we can make him a Dodger.”

Lewis went 9-0 with a 0.52 ERA while striking out 83 and walking 15 in 53-1/3 innings this season. He pitched a no-hitter against Hays High in late April, striking out nine.

This is how all over the place John Elders’ brain was two weekends ago.

He was sitting at home, having just returned from Sacramento and the NCAA West Track & Field Prelims. As he processed the heretofore unfamiliar feeling of having two members of the Titans’ Big West champion women’s track and field team qualify for the NCAA Championships, his mind wandered toward another event Cal State Fullerton athletes will be competing in this week in Austin, Texas.

“I was sitting there, thinking about the weekend, and all of a sudden, I started thinking, ‘Was that a conference record?’ So I went on the conference website and realized, yes, it was.”

Elders wasn’t referring to Samantha Huerta’s qualifying time in the 800 meters. Nor was he referring to Iesha Hamm’s qualifying mark in the high jump — although he easily could have. No, his mind suddenly jumped to Cal State Fullerton men’s 4-by-400 relay team, which destroyed not only the previous school record by nearly 3.5 seconds, but set the Big West mark in the process.

Elders is certainly entitled to have his mind wander like one of his runners during a morning workout. With Huerta in the 800, Hamm in the high jump and the relay quartet of Parris Samaniego, Rasaun House, Chris Shiley and Marcel Espinoza, the Titans are sending the largest contingent in school history to this week’s NCAA Track & Field Championships at Mike Myers Stadium in Austin.

Huerta and Hamm are the first Titans to qualify for the NCAAs as individuals since Ciara Short qualified for the 400 in 2010 and 2011. Between Short’s 400 in 2011 and this year’s windfall, Cal State Fullerton sent only a men’s 4-by-100 relay team to nationals in 2018.

There’s a good reason for that, because qualifying for nationals in track and field is one of the most difficult feats in collegiate sports. You have to finish in the top 12 among the 48 competitors at your regional — either in the West or the East. From there, you have to finish in the top eight during one of the three running heats in each event to reach the finals.

“We’ve been very successful at the conference level, with the men winning conference in 2017 and 2018 and the women winning their first conference title this year,” Elders said. “We’ve really elevated this program to be the dominant force in the Big West Conference, so the natural next step is to be more competitive at the NCAAs and to see our athletes start to come to fruition has been rewarding. We’re going to want more after this year.”

Individually, Elders may get his wish. Huerta, a junior, is one of the most dynamic runners in the Big West, a middle-distance phenom who won the conference title in both the 800 and the 1,500 — a feat that required her to run four demanding races in two days, helping her earn Big West Track Athlete of the Year honors.

She broke the school record in the 1,500 (4:18) by seven seconds at the Bryan Clay Invitational at Azusa Pacific in April, then became the first Titan to not only win a conference title in the 1,500, but double in that and the 800. Running the second of three heats at regionals, Huerta clocked a personal-best 2:03.96 in the 800, which erased her own school record by nearly a half-second and placed fourth in her heat and ninth overall.

“It was nerve-wracking and exciting and there were so many emotions running through my system,” Huerta said. “I knew who was in my heat and I knew what I needed to run; there was one girl who ran 2:02 and two who ran 2:04. I was scared, because fourth didn’t secure my spot.

“We were watching the last heat and the top finishers ran 2:02 and that made my heart drop. If the top girl ran 2:02, others had to run 2:03 behind her, so it came down to milliseconds. I looked up at the board and saw a ‘Q’ next to my name and my eyes started to water. … I was so overcome with emotions,” she said.

Elders said Huerta’s times keep dropping, so a finals berth and All-American status is within her reach.

“It’s just realistic for her to make the finals, but it will be really close. All the girls in this final have run between 2:02 and 2:05, so it’s anybody’s game,” he said. “It’s anybody’s game, but I wouldn’t count her out because she’s so competitive.”

As is Hamm, who punched her ticket to Austin by pushing through a mental block. The sophomore from Bakersfield had been her own worst enemy — a pure physical specimen whose focus tended to wander and make it difficult to block out extraneous distractions. But in Sacramento, Hamm stayed out of her own way and executed what Elders called “a beautiful jump” of 5 feet, 10.75 inches on her third and final try.

“I was so pleased to see her able to put it together in the big moment,” Elders said. “That was really rewarding to see her grow as an athlete this year and to achieve success like she did at the conference and regional meets. She’s super hard on herself and it was great to see her make that breakthrough.”

What the 1,600-meter relay team pulled off also was impressive. Not to say it was easy, considering nothing had gone right for the Titan men’s team throughout the regionals.

First, the men’s 400-relay team that qualified for nationals last year, failed to do so this year. Second, relay anchor Espinoza, who ran a school-record 45.87 at the Big West Championships, couldn’t break 47 in his individual 400 and failed to advance.

That put everything on the backs of the 1,600 relay team, which set a school record of 3:08.48 at the conference meet.

And Elders, searching for that silver lining, told one of his assistants that there was more in the tank for all of his runners, especially because Espinoza had a day off after failing to qualify.

“I told (assistant) Marques Barosso that sometimes bad things happen to open the door for something great to happen, and you never know how things will pan out,” Elders said. “Sure enough, since Marcelo didn’t make the quarters, he was rested and all four guys were really fresh.”

Were they ever. Samaniego, House and Shiley all ran sub-47-second splits, with House and Shiley running personal bests.

As for Espinoza? A 44.9 anchor leg.

The result was that record-shredding 3:05.16 that sent Elders to a late-night date with the conference website.

“They crushed it. They absolutely crushed it,” Elders said. “It was really cool to see them afterward, because they were so pumped up. All that frustration came out in super excitement.”

LINCOLN, Neb. — Former Angels outfielder Darin Erstad resigned as Nebraska’s baseball coach Monday, saying he wants to spend more time with his family.

Erstad’s announcement came a day after the Cornhuskers were eliminated from the NCAA Oklahoma City regional with a 16-1 loss to Connecticut, ending a 32-24 season.

“I have made the extremely difficult decision to step away from coaching,” Erstad said. “I love this team. I love our staff and I love Nebraska. The bottom line is I do not want to miss seeing our kids grow up. I want to thank our administration and academic staff for all of their support over the last eight years. GBR forever.”

Erstad spent most of his 14-year big league career with the Angels, winning three Gold Gloves and making the American League All-Star team in 1998 and 2000. He was part of the Angels’ 2002 World Series champion team.

Erstad led the Huskers’ transition from the Big 12 to the Big Ten and finished with an eight-year record of 267-193-1. His 2017 won the regular-season title and he was named Big Ten coach of the year. The Huskers were second or better in the conference four of eight years and made the conference tournament championship game in 2013, 2014 and 2019.

“Darin earned the right to lead this baseball program well into the future, and I was hopeful that would be the case,” athletic director Bill Moos said. “Darin loved the opportunity to represent Nebraska every day and did an outstanding job. He’s a Nebraska guy who loves this program and is a proven winner. With all that said, I respect and admire that Darin’s priority now is to spend more time with his family as his children grow up.”

Erstad was a two-sport standout at Nebraska in the 1990s. He was the punter on the 1994 national championship football team, and he was the No. 1 pick in the 1995 Major League Baseball draft.

PHOENIX — The last time the Dodgers were in Arizona, Walker Buehler had an imperfect spring training, pitching very little out of an abundance of caution for the young right-hander’s future.

On this visit, he was nearly perfect.

Buehler retired the first 14 batters he faced Monday night and 24 of 26 in eight dominant innings as the Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-1.

“He was pretty special tonight,” said Corey Seager who provided all of the Dodgers’ offense with a three-run home run.

It was special – and this season’s first real flash of the potential to dominate hitters Buehler began fulfilling last season. He struck out 11, one short of his career-best set last September against the Colorado Rockies, and walked none.

“It was a long season for him last year. It was a little bit of an abbreviated spring training,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “When you talk to the player, they feel like you can just get back on a bike and go. But it’s been a process. Just to see the way he threw the ball tonight … when his fastball is located like that it just shows what a pitcher can do with velocity and location.”

The “slow-play” handling of Buehler in spring training led to an uneven start to the season for the young right-hander. Through his first seven starts, he had a 4.95 ERA and opponents were batting .231 against him – a sizeable jump from last year’s .193 – with four home runs.

He started to settle in during early May, allowing just five earned runs in his first 26 innings last month before hitting a speed bump in his start against the New York Mets last week. The Mets got to him for five runs on seven hits (including two more home runs) in just five innings.

“Last year I really learned (that) start to start you’re going to feel different every time and your body never is going to be at 100 percent,” Buehler said. “So learning to change little things on the fly was something I learned last year. And I think this year, the next step of that for me is understanding, ‘Alright I was bad last outing. How do I fix it? What did I not do well?’

“I don’t know if it ever really ends. I think it’s all one big cycle. I obviously feel good. But I don’t think one start is indicative of everything being perfect and cheery. I’ve still got stuff that I need to work on and I will.”

Buehler was dominant from the outset on Monday and indeed perfect into the fifth inning. He struck out two of the three batters he faced in each of the first two innings and again in the fourth. Half of the first 14 Diamondbacks struck out.

“Every time he goes out I think you have a little bit of, ‘He could do that,’ ” Seager said.

Christian Walker got to Buehler for a two-out home run in the fifth inning to break up his perfect-game bid.

“Hats off to him,” Buehler said. “He’s a talented hitter, man. I challenged him with a fastball and he got to it. You guys know, I’ll tip my hat to a guy if he hits my fastball. Not a perfect pitch but not terrible.”

Buehler went right back to dismissing hitters. He retired the next nine Diamondbacks in order (including three more strikeouts) until Ildemaro Vargas poked a single through the left side with the Dodgers shifted to the right side of the infield.

Buehler struck out Carson Kelly to end the eighth inning and put a final punctuation mark on his outing. He threw 102 pitches in his eight innings, the most he has thrown in a game since Game 3 of last fall’s World Series (108), and left the ninth for Kenley Jansen.

“Obviously you look at the gun and you see the velocity,” Roberts said of Buehler. “But his direction, the fastball lane – everything just played off that really. It was just on point. I think if you look at 100 pitches or whatever the number was, he wasn’t stressed at all because he was just so efficient in his delivery.

“The breaking ball that he was using, he was striking, getting swing-and-miss with it. Pitched at the top of the zone when he needed to. But honestly, it was the fastball on both sides of the plate that was dominant and missing bats all night long.”

Coming into the game, the Dodgers’ four left-handed hitters – Seager, Cody Bellinger, Max Muncy and Joc Pederson – were a combined 5 for 41 with 26 strikeouts in their careers against Ray.

That was enough for Roberts to decide Monday was a good day to give Bellinger and Muncy a day off. Seager (3 for 26 previously against Ray) and Pederson (0 for 3, all strikeouts) were left to fend for themselves.

“Sounds about right,” Seager said when told his history against Ray.

Seager improved on those numbers Monday. After Justin Turner singled with one out in the fourth and David Freese worked Ray for a walk, Ray made his only costly mistake of the day. He left a full-count fastball up over the plate and Seager sent it into the left-center field seats for a three-run home run.

The homer continued Seager’s own late awakening this season. Over his past 13 games, Seager is 14 for 46 (.304) with four doubles and four home runs.

.@coreyseager_5 on his 3-run HR, finding his rhythm and @buehlersdayoff's outing. pic.twitter.com/qUBVCtOrRw

— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) June 4, 2019

They ain't even go to class, Buehler. pic.twitter.com/r2qfwiIZ9t

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 4, 2019

Seager smash. pic.twitter.com/Ee7Rp7X5Ky

— MLB (@MLB) June 4, 2019

Former JSerra players Chase Strumpf and Davis Wendzel were selected Monday in the Major League Baseball Draft.

Wendzel, a third baseman at Baylor, was taken by the Texas Rangers as a competitive-balance pick. He was the 41st player drafted overall.

Strumpf, a second baseman at UCLA, was chosen in the second round, 64th overall, by the Chicago Cubs.

LOS ANGELES — It was a mighty struggle, including a journey through the loser’s bracket, but the top-seeded UCLA baseball team defeated Loyola Marymount 6-3 on Monday night to advance to the Super Regional round of the NCAA tournament before 1,955 at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

“We’re very happy to come back out of the loser’s bracket,” Bruins coach John Savage said. “Not an easy thing to do these days. Win two games yesterday, win one game today, so pretty proud of our guys.”

The Bruins used a total of six pitchers in what amounted to a bullpen game. Included therein were ace starter Ryan Garcia, who pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings. Holden Powell earned his 17th save and Michael Townsend (3-0) got the victory with 2-2/3 innings of scoreless ball.

The big hit was a three-run home run by Chase Strumpf in the fourth inning that extended the Bruins’ lead to 6-2.

The Bruins – ranked No. 1 in the country nearly all season – next face Michigan in one of the eight best-of-three Super Regionals that determine the field for the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. Official sites and schedules will be announced Tuesday morning, but the Bruins (51-9) will host.

LMU (34-25) was playing in its first regional since 2000. The Lions have never been in a Super Regional. They have one College World Series appearance in 1986, but the Super Regionals did not become part of the postseason format until 1999.

Of the three runs surrendered by the Bruins, only one was earned. Shortstop Ryan Kreidler was asked how much confidence the position players on this team have in their pitching staff, even when they know they are heading into a proverbial bullpen game.

“Tons, tons,” he said.

Strumpf’s home run off reliever Codie Paiva came on an 0-and-1 pitch. It was Strumpf’s second three-run home run in two days.

“I kind of just went into the at-bat looking for something elevated,” said Strumpf, who was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the second round of the MLB amateur drafted moments before his homer. “I mean, runners in scoring position, I believe it was two outs.

“So I figured I wasn’t going to get a great pitch to hit. First pitch that went by was kind of achangeup, elevated. So I kind of just re-committed to my approach next pitch and he threw another changeup and it was elevated enough to allow me to get a good swing off.”

It was huge.

“I was just trying to do a job,” Strumpf said. “It was two outs – two-out RBIs are daggers. I know it was a big moment.”

Strumpf, who has nine home runs this season, was voted Most Outstanding Player in the regional.

Even though the Lions reached the final, they scored just 10 runs in their regional games. They left the bases loaded in the first – even though they scored two unearned runs in the inning – and had the bases loaded without scoring in the second.

Those, too, were big moments.

“We hung in there with them, I know that wasn’t our goal,” LMU coach Jason Gill said. “We felt the whole game we were going to win all the way up until the ninth inning. We just couldn’t get a timely hit.”

LMU third baseman Brandon Shearer agreed not getting more runs in those first two innings took its toll.

“I mean, of course it does because you’re playing the best team in the country and you want to take control of those opportunities that we get,” he said. “But, I mean, that’s baseball.”

LMU got on the board early with two runs in the first inning. UCLA starter Felix Rubi, who pitched three innings Sunday and lasted just 1-1/3 innings (and 48 pitches) in this one, walked Nick Sogard and then first baseman Michael Toglia booted a ball hit by Kenny Oyama, who ended up at second with Sogard advancing to third.

Shearer hit a sacrifice fly to score Sogard. Trevin Esquerra then hit a tough-to-handle ball at Toglia. Again, he misplayed the ball, it went into the outfield and Oyama scored.

The Lions appeared prime for more in the inning, but Dylan Hirsch hit a fly ball to left for the third out with the bases loaded.

The Bruins got those runs back in the bottom of the first, and they, too, received help.

Kreidler singled with one out and Strumpf doubled to center to create a second-and-third situation.Jack Stronach got Kreidler home with a sacrifice fly to right. Strumpf headed for third and the relay throw from first baseman Steven Chavez was wide and got past Shearer, giving Strumpf enough time to dash home and tie the score at 2-2.

LMU had runners at first and third with one out in the second when Townsend replaced Rubi. Townsend walked Shearer to load the bases, but he got Trevin Esquerra to hit into an inning-ending double play to keep the score tied.

UCLA then put some distance between itself and LMU when Strumpf hit his three-run home run, which had Bruins fans going wild.

UCLA just couldn’t help itself, though, as the error bug struck again. Shearer hit a leadoff double off reliever Jack Filby, who started the top of the fifth. Esquerra hit a ground ball to second baseman Strumpf. The ball went under his glove, Shearer scoring to cut the Lions’ deficit to 6-3.

Filby buckled down and got the next three batters, striking out two of them.

UCLA had a chance to break open the game when they loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth. But Lions reliever Nick Frasso got Jake Pries to foul out to catcher Cooper Uhl, who made a fine play at the netting.

UCLA’s Garrett Mitchell, who had two triples Sunday, did not play. He was sick, according to a team spokesman.

CHASE. STRUMPF.

STONE. COLD. #RoadToOmaha | @UCLABaseball pic.twitter.com/GPxngSGSQf

— NCAA Baseball (@NCAACWS) June 4, 2019

Here are highlights from tonight's regional-clinching win over No. 3 seed Loyola Marymount!

The Bruins came back through the elimination bracket to earn the program's first Super Regionals berth since 2013. #GoBruins | #RoadToOmaha pic.twitter.com/QP2LXtj3vm

— UCLA Baseball (@UCLABaseball) June 4, 2019

A man who had been sentenced to 22 years behind bars for a 2013 attempted murder in Orange County is one of two suspects in the fatal stabbing of another prison inmate from Riverside County on Thursday, May 30, officials said Monday.

Corrections officers used pepper spray and a blast grenade to break up an altercation involving three men in an exercise yard at California Sate Prison – Sacramento in Folsom at about 2:16 p.m. Thursday, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials said in a Monday statement. Charles Anthony Ross, 63, was stabbed with an inmate-made weapon, and was later pronounced dead at 2:34 p.m.

Officials identified Joshua Kerr, 35, and Nicholas Mangelli, 28, as suspects in the homicide. Both inmates were placed in the prison’s Administrative Segregation Unit.

Prosecutors charged Kerr in 2013 in Orange County on suspicion of attempted murder, with sentencing enhancements for street gang activity, court records show. He pleaded guilty in December 2015 to the allegations, as well as second-degree robbery, CDCR officials said.

Mangelli was sentenced in Sacramento County in March 2014 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for first degree murder, said the release. He pleaded guilty to stabbing a man he called his friend, an Iraq war veteran, about 35 times during a 2012 robbery, the Sacramento Bee reported.

CDCR officials did not immediately suggest what might have motivated the two men to allegedly attack Ross. His death was under investigation Monday.

He had been incarcerated since 1997 after he was convicted of first-degree murder and second-degree robbery in Riverside County, CDCR officials said. He was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

OKLAHOMA CITY — These Bruins punch back.

After giving up a two-out, game-tying home run in the top of the seventh inning in Game 2 of the Women’s College World Series championship series on Tuesday, second-ranked UCLA answered with a walk-off RBI single from sophomore Kinsley Washington that secured the program’s first NCAA title since 2010.

UCLA completed a sweep of top-ranked Oklahoma with the dramatic 5-4 win, giving UCLA its 118th NCAA title across all sports.

When pinch-runner Jacqui Prober slid into home, beating a throw and contorting her body around OU catcher Lynnsie Elam, the Bruins erupted in celebration. UCLA coaches hugged just outside the dugout. Players rushed to Washington, who ended up at the bottom of an infield dog pile. Everyone wearing blue and gold, including a small, but vocal group of family members and former players in the stands, wiped away tears of joy as the most decorated program in the sport ended its longest championship drought.

“The history is as old as dirt,” head coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “I’m so proud to be a part of it, player, assistant, head coach. This is about the here and now. This is about UCLA softball in 2019. This team got on a mission.”

Chaos overtook the field as families flooded the outfield. Tears rolled down Washington’s face during a long embrace with her mother Dana. Washington’s father James stood nearby with hands on hips. The former UCLA safety who won Rose Bowls and Super Bowls used to joke that he would make replicas of his championship rings for his daughter.

No need anymore.

“She walked up to me, ‘I got my ring!’ ” James said laughing.

With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Washington, a sophomore second baseman, stepped to the plate. The only thing on her mind was her pitcher.

“Don’t let Rachel go out there and pitch another inning,” Washington said.

UCLA’s Rachel Garcia pitched a complete game Tuesday, throwing 603 total pitches in the WCWS and all but two of UCLA’s innings in Oklahoma City. She gave up eight hits and four runs in the game-clinching win while earning WCWS Most Outstanding Player honors.

The ace junior lost her grandfather earlier this season. She never had a moment to grieve the loss as the season approached and she honored him with the inscription “Papa” with a heart on her visor. Giving up the game-tying homer in the seventh inning to OU senior Shay Knighten was not even close to the biggest challenge Garcia overcame this year.

“She’s just strong,” Garcia’s mother Christine said, her voice thick with emotion. “She’s the strongest person I know.”

Tuesday’s was Garcia’s third win of the season against the top-ranked Sooners after the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year pitched the Bruins to a regular-season win and a 16-3 Game 1 victory on Monday. Although UCLA (56-6) was the lower-ranked team in the championship series, the Bruins went 3-0 against the Sooners (57-6) this season, including handing the top-ranked team in the country consecutive losses for the first time this season.

The Sooners, who were trying to win their third national championship in four years, fought to avoid the sweep, but the Bruins countered each time.

Oklahoma third baseman Sydney Romero had a lead-off double in the first. UCLA’s Bubba Nickles and Briana Perez responded with back-to-back solo homers to start the bottom of the inning. When Romero hit a solo homer in the third to cut the lead in half, Aaliyah Jordan fired back with one of her own.

UCLA, which tied the WCWS record for home runs in a game during Monday’s championship opener, matched the mark again Tuesday, showing the depth that carried the team to the co-Pac-12 championship and the program’s 12th NCAA title.

When the announcer called the team captains forward during the official trophy ceremony, players exchanged confused looks.

“We don’t do that here,” Washington said laughing.

Instead the entire team approached the podium and lifted the trophy together as white confetti covered the field.

For the 1st time since 2010, @UCLASoftball wins the #WCWS! pic.twitter.com/5T5Ew7r4zS

— ESPN (@espn) June 5, 2019

What a way to win the National Championship! Kinsley Washington is CLUTCH and walks it off for the Bruins!#WCWS | @UCLASoftball pic.twitter.com/hFm1q9895Z

— NCAA Softball (@NCAAsoftball) June 5, 2019

The Most Outstaning Player, Rachel Garcia gives @sportsiren her first take following winning the National Championship.#WCWS | @UCLASoftball pic.twitter.com/KNVOo8iWe1

— NCAA Softball (@NCAAsoftball) June 5, 2019

Frame it #WCWS | @UCLASoftball pic.twitter.com/Fsu4UxbUWj

— NCAA Softball (@NCAAsoftball) June 5, 2019

U-C-L-A! Fight! Fight! Fight!#WCWS | @UCLASoftball pic.twitter.com/KwsqXsqNIc

— NCAA Softball (@NCAAsoftball) June 5, 2019

We Are the Champions #WCWS
(via @UCLASoftball) pic.twitter.com/71IvmkkrKL

— NCAA Softball (@NCAAsoftball) June 5, 2019

Travel back with me to the mid-1990s, the dawn of the internet age, when Netscape, Mozilla and AOL first raised their heads above the primeval forest, accompanied by the hiss-buzz-whistle-and-scream of millions of neophytes logging on.

Few could foresee the creatures that would come to populate this brave new world. But lack of imagination — or historical perspective — did not stop federal lawmakers from drafting the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that would do much to create what we now take for granted. The core problem with the act is one sentence in Section 230. It reads, “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”

Intending to create more space for free speech, Section 230 makes it nearly impossible for individuals to hold online businesses like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and countless others accountable for the content they publish. In a very real sense, then, federal officials unleashed the demons we face today — racists, foreign intelligence operatives, cyber-bullies, robots, data pirates and other bad actors.

That’s very different from the legal environment in which old-media publishers and broadcasters have operated for about a century. If they publish or broadcast false and defamatory information about individuals or organizations, they’re liable for the damage they cause — no matter the source.

Not so social media giants like Yelp, Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. If they host false and defamatory claims about someone, Section 230 protects them from lawsuits. So, if you find yourself in the crosshairs of an outrageous claim in a Facebook post, you can’t sue Facebook. You could sue the author of the offending material, but to do that you’d need to identify that author, and that’s often a challenge.

You want to fix social media?  Hold social media companies to the standards of accuracy imposed for a century on their old-school forebears.

Critics say holding social-media companies like Facebook responsible for the content they host will destroy their business model. For instance, they say there’s no way for Facebook to manage content on its 2.4 billion user accounts. But that’s Facebook’s problem to solve — not yours or mine or government’s. If Facebook won’t or can’t edit its content for accuracy, let individuals who’ve been wronged sue the company for defamation.

At this point in their evolution, powerful media giants will make it nearly impossible to amend Section 230. So political candidates will continue to surf public outrage about Facebook with proposals that run the spectrum of stupidity — from dismantling the company to nationalizing it.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, says she’ll break up tech companies, including Facebook. In the meantime, she has spent more than any other candidate — $2 million in the last year — on Facebook ads stoking outrage about Big Tech. Irony, anyone?

Using Harris’s logic, any product, service or celebrity that is widely popular is too important to leave to the marketplace. It must be provided — or regulated — by government.

Finding himself at the center of these controversies, even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has decided not to resist but to ride the wave of public outrage. In a Washington Post commentary, he has declared Facebook a victim of bad guys just like everybody else and has begged federal officials to rescue him through regulation. But regulation empowers incumbent companies (like Facebook) and the officials who wield government authority (like Harris and Warren).

If you really want to make Facebook responsive to the public, treat Facebook and all social media companies the way we treat any American publisher or broadcaster today: allow victims of extremism, defamation and fake news to sue Facebook; let the courts sort out the claims. That will require a rewrite of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. To do that, I’d recommend an old-fashioned tool: the pencil and the eraser.

Will Swaim is president of the California Policy Center, a nonprofit dedicated to democracy and prosperity for all Californians, and is co-host of National Review’s Radio Free California podcast. Tweet him @WillSwaim.

Just a few months back it was noted that California was suffering through a resurgence of medieval diseases. Another plague of premodern times now threatens to visit the state this summer: darkness.

Bloomberg News reported that “California may go dark this summer.”

Pacific Gas & Electric plans to cut power when the wind blows hard during the upcoming wildfire season, which “could plunge millions of residents into darkness.”

The utility is skittish due to last fall’s Camp Fire in Northern California, which killed 85 civilians, injured several firefighters, and scorched more than 150,000 acres and nearly 15,000 homes. The state determined the wildfire “was caused by electrical transmission lines owned and operated by” PG&E, which faces $30 billion in liabilities, plus possible fines and penalties. It filed for bankruptcy in January.

PG&E’s plan, which includes clearing more trees that could fall power lines, and better management of vegetation near equipment that easily could catch fire, has been approved by the Public Utilities Commission. It also allows the utility to more frequently shut off power when fire danger is high.

A truly free market system would likely have already corrected the problems without government involvement. It’s a giant leap to get there from where we are now. But California should at least follow the progress of Japan’s deregulatory agenda and consider pursuing reform based on that model.

The Camp Fire was the deadliest, most destructive wildfire in California history. No one wants to go through another. Maybe temporary blackouts, such as one that virtually shut down the wine-country town of Calistoga last fall, are necessary to prevent or minimize the loss of life and property from wildfires. But this is California, often thought of as the most modern state in the country, maybe the most advanced place on Earth.

The Camp Fire was not the inevitable outcome of modern convenience gone wild but the result of California’s antiquated way of delivering that service. The state’s regulatory regime awards government-protected utility monopolies and sets prices in a Bulgarian-esque system.

According to Pacific Research Institute senior fellow Wayne Winegarden, no state outside of New York has a more regulated energy sector than California. It scores near bottom in several regulatory categories even though electricity was “deregulated” years ago. Utilities are managed more like government bureaucracies than private enterprises that must satisfy customers and make sound decisions to stay in business. Risks are not socialized in a fully free market system. Instead private providers are held solely liable, creating a strong incentive to minimize risk.

A year ago, there was a growing concern, said the San Francisco Chronicle, that “the state’s system for producing, selling and distributing energy is undergoing profound changes,” citing a PUC report that “argues that the state has no clear idea of how to manage a market transformation that is well under way.”

Meanwhile, a new state law requires all retail electricity to be generated by renewable sources by 2045. The fossil fuels that stoked California’s growth and progress will be retired under legislation signed by former Gov. Jerry Brown, and replaced by sources from a previous era, such as windmills and the sun, both of which have a long way to go before they can supply energy adequate to meet demand.  A sensible legislative body would repeal this legislation. A more sensible one would have never passed it.

This reality is demonstrated by a story from Los Angeles. The state ordered 10 natural gas-fired units at three plants be shut down for environmental reasons. Consultants hired to study whether the plants “could be replaced with cleaner alternatives” told the Department of Water and Power that Los Angeles should rebuild the generating units targeted for closure.

“The utility’s staff agrees, saying that batteries charged with solar or wind power aren’t yet cheap or reliable enough to replace the gas plants, which are critical to keeping the lights on,” the Los Angeles Times reported in December, also noting at the time that “there are no viable alternatives in the short term, at least without increasing the risk of power outages among the 4 million people.”

Of course the city ignored the sound advice.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles is being nationally embarrassed by an accumulation of street trash that recalls a pre-sanitation era. Another medieval problem in the state that believes itself to be the model of progress.

Kerry Jackson is a fellow with the Center for California Reform at the Pacific Research Institute.