“The change is real because we can hold it in our hands.”

By WILL HERNANDEZ
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

WEST COVINA – For the last three seasons, the South Hills baseball team has not shied away from scheduling tough nonleague opponents.

The Huskies have already faced one of the toughest teams in the nation and came out winners, defeating Archbishop McCarthy, a powerhouse program ranked No. 1 in Florida, in the National High School Invitational in Cary, N.C., on March 30.

So when the Huskies hosted Mater Dei on Tuesday, it was nothing new to them.

South Hills shut out the Monarchs, 3-0, on four solid innings by starter Zach Bromstead and three from the back end of the bullpen.

“Zach didn’t have his best stuff,” South Hills coach Darren Murphy said. “He’s a competitor and got out of innings when his back was against the wall. He’s pitched a lot better this year but he did enough to get the job done. But I think he’ll be the first to tell you that he didn’t have his best stuff.”

Although the Huskies’ bullpen kept the lead in tact down the stretch, Bromstead got some help from his defense early in the game.

With runners on first and second with two outs in the top of the first inning, Mater Dei had the Huskies (14-3) on their heels. Senior Blake Hunt drilled a line drive to third base but the ball hit the bag and took a big enough hop for South Hills shortstop Jacob Amaya to recover it.

With two outs, Mater Dei (10-6) did not hesitate to wave the lead runner Michael Peabody home. However, Amaya recovered the ricochet in time and nailed Peabody at the plate.

Mater Dei coach Burt Call said the play took the wind out of them a little bit.

“I don’t think it was a bad way to start the game,” Call said. “We wanted to come out and be aggressive. I felt like it was an opportunity where maybe we could sneak a run in.”

Emilio Rosas opened the second inning by drilling a leadoff double. After Kelley Holgate’s sacrifice bunt, the Monarchs had a runner 90 feet away from home plate with two outs. This time around, Bromstead got out of the inning by getting Grant Burton to ground out to second.

“At least early in the game, with runners on, their pitcher did a good job of getting pitches when he needed to and getting outs when he needed to,” Call said.

South Hills got on the board in the first when John Dearth’s sharp grounder to second base took a tricky hop on Maxwell Foxcroft. The Monarchs second baseman then made an errant throw to first, which allowed Amaya to come around and score from second base.

“Sometimes we just have to battle against a good team,” Amaya said. “They’re a good team, a good hitting team with good pitchers. We just try to put some good swings, put the ball in play, get on base and swipe some bags. That’s what you have to do against a good team.”

The Huskies added two runs in the fifth inning thanks to an RBI single by Dearth and a bases-loaded walk to Brandon Deiter.

For South Hills, three was more than enough as relief pitchers Andreas Quinones and Michael Ortega closed out the last three innings after Bromstead.

“Yeah it was kind of a staff game,” Murphy said. “We knew we would probably use three pitchers. The thing now with the pitch counts, if you’re going to play three games in a week, you got to kind of spread it out.”

The annual Easter egg hunt at Newport Dunes is back this weekend. Hundreds of children have gathered at the beach resort to search for more than six thousand eggs containing small surprises, ranging from toys to candy.

The Easter bunny will lead the hunt and will be available for photos.

If you go

When: 9 a.m. Saturday.

Where: Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort & Marina, 1131 Back Bay Drive

Information: visitnewportbeach.com

Longtime Laguna Beach restaurateur and former City Council candidate Jon Madison is selling his Madison Square & Garden Café.

The property, a combination restaurant and gift and home decor shop, has a pricetag of $6.5 million.

Built in 1912, the classic Craftsman bungalow has an expansive front porch and multiple patio areas. It’s set on an 8,712-square-foot parcel with towering, mature trees in the city’s north gallery district.

Next door is Urth Café; across the street is the Laguna Art Museum. Main Beach is a block away.

The C-1 zoning allows flexibility, and the café is approved for serving wine and beer, according to the listing. The café has a complete commercial kitchen, it says.

Upstairs, a manager’s suite could be a residence, office space or leased for extra income, the listing suggests. It also says the owner spent $1 million on improvements that “will provide years of low-cost maintenance for the next investor.”

The capitalization rate – the rate of return on the property based on the income it’s expected to generate – was estimated at 7.4 percent.

Sakin Team at Star Real Estate is the listing agent.

Property records show Madison purchased the building with another buyer in 1997. They paid $455,000, according to the records. Madison is now the sole owner, said Philip Talbert at Sakin Team.

The restaurant and its fixtures are included in the sale; the gift shop inventory is negotiable, Talbert said.

Why is Madison selling?

“I think he’s just ready for another chapter,” Talbert said. Madison did not return a reporter’s calls.

Madison is a well-liked businessman who’s been active in the city’s historical preservation efforts, and he’s known as a philanthropist. He has opened the restaurant to fundraisers and donated the food, according to a Register story in 2014.

He also claimed to be a licensed lawyer with numerous university degrees.

But that September, as Madison made what would be an unsuccessful run for City Council, a Register reporter researching his background found that he had none of the degrees nor the State Bar of California membership he said he had.

When confronted, Madison insisted his claims were true.

SEAL BEACH — It’s a shaggy dog story. But instead of rambling along pointlessly, this tale comes to a happy conclusion – albeit after a harrowing start.

The Seal Beach Animal Care Center recently took in 15 filthy long-haired dogs ranging in age from, approximately, 2 to 7 years old. The mutts, which appear to be poodle mixes, had spent their entire lives practically piled on top of each other in a small outdoor enclosure, said Jane Parnes, lead volunteer at the shelter.

Parnes declined to say who rescued the dogs or where they were found. “They appear to be from several litters,” Parnes said. “They are clearly related.”

The little dogs arrived toting more than a pound of fur each – about one-tenth of their body weights.

Their coats, intended by nature to be white, were brown and matted. Tangled tresses completely obscured their faces. When shelter workers groomed the pups, their knotted fur came off in single dog-shaped clumps.

“All that hair had to be painful for them,” Parnes said.

The dogs grew up in a cramped pin, she said. “The area had no covering to protect them from rain and sun. They had little interaction with humans, just a bowl of dirty water and some food.”

The owner asked if he could keep one of the dogs, Parnes said. Rescuers turned down his request.

“I’ve been here 18 years and I’ve seen all sorts of things, including cigarette burns,” she said. “These dogs may not have scars, but theirs is some of the worst abuse I’ve ever seen. The sad thing is, lots of dogs live in similar situations.”

Despite their grim back story, the dogs are sweet.

“They are in various stages of being scared,” Parnes said. “But they all wag their tails and give kisses. They love being held.”

At first, Parnes thought the shelter would hang on to the dogs for a few weeks to acclimate them to humans. Some are under treatment for eye infections.

But three have already been adopted: Shannon, Quinn and Rainbow.

“People fall in love with these dogs,” Parnes said.

Of course, Parnes hopes that every shaved shaggy dog will end up with loving owners.

“But then,” she added, “I wish all of our dogs and cats could find homes.”

ANAHEIM — A man was killed when his motorcycle hit a van Tuesday night in Anaheim, police said.

The incident was reported at around 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 11, west of the intersection of Ball Road and Walnut Street, Anaheim police Sgt. Jacob Gallacher said.

A man in his 30s, driving a Suzuki motorcycle at a high rate of speed, struck the driver’s-side door of a Toyota Sienna that had pulled out of a driveway in the 1400 block of West Ball Road, Gallacher said.

Police found the motorcyclist, whose name was not released, in the road suffering from major head trauma. He died at a hospital, Gallacher said.

No citations have been issued to the driver of the Sienna, he added.

KEEP ‘EM COMING: Alliance Apparel has plans Wednesday to launch the label H:ours to be sold through Revolve’s online shop.
The aim for the contemporary company’s latest line is to offer a collection of nighttime including form-fitting minidresses and bodysuits. The collection launches at an event set for Wednesday evening at Avenue L.A. that’s expected to draw Chanel Iman, Jasmine Tookes, Hailey Clauson, Chiara Ferragni and Olivia Culpo among others. H:ours at launch will retail from $98 to $338.
The rollout of Alliance’s latest collection is good timing as other Los Angeles brands playing in the contemporary space lose steam. Bebe is shuttering stores as BCBG Max Azria Group and its portfolio of brands wind their way through a bankruptcy restructuring.
Alliance has been on a tear more recently with its brand launches following its 2015 acquisition by Revolve for undisclosed terms. The deal brought Alliance’s portfolio — which at the time consisted of Lovers + Friends, Tularosa and NBD — into the multibranded e-tailer’s fold.
The deal was followed up not too long after with the launch of the footwear brand Raye. Last year saw the introduction of Majorelle and Grlfrnd denim along with a House of Harlow 1960 x Revolve collection.
Alliance in

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TYLER’S TRIUMPH: Liv Tyler has been named the face of Triumph International’s Essence range. She is to appear in advertising for its fall 2017 campaign wearing items from the Triumph Essence brand, photographed by the British photographer Rankin.
This is her first initiative with the brand as well as the first time the label has named a face after its range. Previous Triumph faces include Helena Christensen, Jessica Hart and Daisy Lowe.
The company’s Essence range is a premium offering with the season’s theme of “Opulent Art Nouveau.” Tyler will be pictured wearing styles designed in leavers lace, velvet embellished mesh and silk satin.
RELATED STORY: Liv Tyler Discusses Fashion, Belstaff and Film in London >>
Tyler said the Essence collection “special and has both a playful, feminine and chic style.”
Suzanne McKenna, global head of brand at Triumph, called Tyler “a modern woman in every sense, a mother and actress with a fierce sense of femininity that women across the world can relate to,” McKenna said.
Tyler is filming “Gunpowder,” a TV miniseries starring Kit Harington and Mark Gatiss and worked on Fritz Böhm’s “Wildling,” which features Brad Dourif and Bel Powley. She has teamed with brands in the past such as Belstaff and was

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PARIS — Mona Lisa, meet Louis Vuitton.
Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, which is plastered on tote bags, T-shirts and mugs in Paris souvenir stores, is the star of a new collaboration between the French luxury brand and American artist Jeff Koons, which was unveiled at a celebrity-studded dinner at the Louvre museum on Tuesday.
Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Connelly, Miranda Kerr, Léa Seydoux and Michelle Williams were among the 200 guests who enjoyed a three-course meal in the presence of the enigmatic muse, marking the first time the Louvre has hosted a dinner in the room housing the world’s most famous painting.
“This evening seems to be almost a dream,” marveled Jennifer Aniston, flanked by her husband, Justin Theroux. “It’s unbelievable.”
Williams watched from a distance as guests including Catherine Deneuve vied for cell phone shots of the “Mona Lisa.”
“I feel like I’m going to remember this night for the rest of my life. I once came to the Louvre and tried to see the ‘Mona Lisa,’ but there were so many people around it that you couldn’t get close,” the soft-spoken actress said. “I haven’t had my moment with her yet.”
On the ground floor, displayed alongside the museum’s permanent sculpture collections, were Louis Vuitton

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NYDJ ON TOUR: NYDJ will take its Fit Is Everything campaign on the road. For the first time, the brand will travel to three different malls across the country and will conduct open casting calls to fit consumers in their jeans and photograph them on the spot for a chance to appear in the brand’s fall national ad campaign.
The tour begins this Saturday at Fashion Valley in San Diego. It then goes to Mall of America in Minneapolis on April 22, and Roosevelt Field in Garden City, N.Y., on April 29. The event takes place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at all three stops on the malls’ first floor.
Everyone who attends can go through the activation, and following the National Fit Tour, NYDJ will select images from each location that will make the final 2017 campaign.
Fashion photographer Dewey Nicks will shoot the campaign at each mall location, and stylist Inge Fonteyne will style each participant. NYDJ will provide hair and makeup from local salons.
Known for its Original Slimming Fit jeans, which slim in the front and lift in the back, NYDJ has been the number-one denim brand at department stores since 2011. Made to fit every body, the brand is sold

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