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Ryan Boyajian, the boyfriend of one of “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” appeared Wednesday in a federal investigation into the bookie who received millions of dollars for gambling debts from Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter for baseball star Shohei Ohtani,

Mizuhara agreed on Wednesday to plead guilty to stealing nearly $17 million from Ohtani, according to federal prosecutors. The money was used to pay Mizuhara’s gambling debts to Orange County bookie Mathew Bowyer.

In a story on ESPN.com on Wednesday, Boyajian, who first appeared on “The Real Housewives of Orange County” in 2023, was revealed to have been the contact to whom Mizuhara wired funds to cover his losses on bets placed with Bowyer.

Boyajian and Bowyer, friends for years, shared a bank account for joint real estate projects, ESPN.com reported. Steven Katzman, Boyajian’s criminal attorney, told ESPN that the reality TV star is cooperating with federal authorities in the investigation.

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“Because there is an active investigation and Ryan is working with the authorities, he can’t confirm or deny what is going on,” Katzman told a reporter for the sports news website. “He is not a bookmaker or a sub-bookie.”

Boyajian joined “The Real Housewives of Orange County” in its 17th season when his girlfriend Jennifer Pedranti was cast as a new housewife on the long-running Bravo reality TV series.

While boyfriends and husbands typically play supporting roles on the “Real Housewives” Boyajian received more airtime than many thanks to the feelings other housewives had for him.

Housewife Tamra Judge, who returned to the series in 2023 after several years away, repeatedly told Pedranti that Boyajian’s track record with other women he dated made him an unworthy romantic partner. Pedranti regularly ended up in tears as Judge and other housewives encouraged her to leave him.

Filming for the 18th season of “The Real Housewives of Orange County” recently concluded, according to a post by Pedranti on her Instagram account.

And Boyajian seems certain to appear on the show, for which a season premiere date has not yet been announced. In April, they told People magazine they had just gotten engaged while on vacation in the Bahamas.

Cristian Olivera scored two goals as LAFC defeated the Las Vegas Lights to advance to the U.S. Open Cup Round of 16.

Baseball No. 11 San Ramon Valley 8, No. 4 De La Salle 2

For the second year in a row, the East Bay Athletic League baseball final will not include De La Salle.

Last year, Granada beat the Spartans in the semifinals.

Wednesday, San Ramon Valley toppled the Concord powerhouse, prevailing on the road behind Marco Jones’ two-run homer and two hits and three RBIs from Julian Cambra.

The Wolves scored two in the first, a run in the third and another in the fifth to take a 4-0 lead.

De La Salle responded in the fifth, scoring on an infield error, and made it 4-2 in the sixth on Sean Stafford’s RBI double.

But SRV added four in the visitor’s half of the seventh – two on Jones’ home run – to advance to the championship game Friday at Granada.

It’ll be a rematch of last season’s league final, which SRV won on its home field 3-2 in nine innings.

Charles Reiland pitched 4 ⅔ innings on Wednesday for SRV. Owen Morgan worked the next two and Nate Simonton got the final out as the Wolves improved to 16-9.

De La Salle fell to 17-6.

Palo Alto 3, Wilcox 0

Henry Harding pitched a no-hitter and Stanford commit Charlie Bates knocked in two runs to lead Palo Alto to a victory on the road over Wilcox.

The win pulled the Vikings even with Los Gatos and Los Altos atop the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division standings with one game to play.

On Friday, Palo Alto plays host to Wilcox and Los Gatos visits Los Altos.

If Palo Alto completes the sweep of Wilcox, it will finish tied for first with Friday’s Los Gatos-Los Altos winner.

Palo Alto is 15-11, 10-3. Wilcox slipped to 15-11, 7-6.

No. 1 Granada 9, Monte Vista 0

Granada certainly looked like the Bay Area News Group’s top-ranked team in this one, scoring seven runs in the third to turn the EBAL semifinal into a rout.

Parker Warner and A.J. Hattaway each pitched three innings and Luke Palma worked the seventh to keep visiting Monte Vista off the scoreboard.

Quinn Boyd, Mikey Boyd and Warner, a Stanford commit, had two RBIs apiece to lead the Granada offense.

The Matadors improved to 24-1. Monte Vista is 15-11.

Granada is 2-0 against SRV this season, winning 6-1 in league play on March 13 and 9-4 to capture the Bishop Gorman Invitational championship on April 6 in Las Vegas.

No. 2 Valley Christian 13, No. 9 St. Ignatius 2

After the teams split two games last week, each winning on the other’s field, Valley Christian made sure the comforts of home meant something this time.

St. Ignatius scored in the top half of the first.

From there, it was all Valley Christian as the Warriors belted four home runs – two by Tatum Marsh – to advance to the West Catholic Athletic League tournament final.

The Warriors will play host to Serra on Thursday.

In addition to his home runs, Marsh had a triple and six RBIs in four at-bats. Nathan Choi and Brock Ketelsen also homered for Valley as the Warriors improved 25-4.

Kole Laubach, who pitched a perfect game to beat SI 3-0 on Friday, allowed two runs and five hits in six innings on Wednesday.

SI dropped to 18-9.

No. 3 Serra 13, No. 14 Archbishop Mitty 10

In a wild game in San Mateo, host Serra rallied from an 8-1 deficit to turn back Mitty in this WCAL semifinal.

Serra scored five in the bottom of the second to cut the deficit to 8-6, added one in the fourth to make it 8-7 and took the lead for good with four in the fifth.

Josiah Rodriguez had a home run among his two hits and knocked in six runs and Joey Damelio had three hits and scored four runs to lead the Padres.

Serra improved to 22-5. Mitty is 16-12-1.

Softball No. 1 St. Francis 13, St. Ignatius 0 (5 innings)

Brooke Wiegand homered and had two RBIs and Kate Munnerlyn had two hits and four RBIs to lead St. Francis to a victory over St. Ignatius in a WCAL game.

The Lancers also got two hits and three RBIs from Shannon Keighran, who dominated in the pitcher’s circle as well. She allowed one hit and struck out seven.

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St. Francis is 23-0, 8-0. SI is 10-10, 4-5.

No. 4 Willow Glen 2, Live Oak 0 (8 innings)

Alanna Clincy and Katelynn Dilbeck each drove in runs in the visitor’s half of the eighth and Clincy pitched a one-hitter with 15 strikeouts as Willow Glen won to remain tied for first with Gilroy in the Blossom Valley Athletic League’s Mt. Hamilton Division.

Willow Glen improved to 20-6, 13-2. Live Oak is 5-17, 1-14.

No. 6 Gilroy 10, Christopher 0

Dani Wilson had two hits and three RBIs and Andrea Alvarez, Bella Sousa and Bam Mendoza each drove in two runs as Gilroy breezed past Christopher in non-league play.

Gilroy is 20-6. Christopher fell to 12-9.

On Friday, Gilroy closes out BVAL Mt. Hamilton play at home against Santa Teresa and Willow Glen visits Westmont.

If Gilroy and Willow Glen, they tie for first.

LOS GATOS — First place was on the line and the two pitchers faced off in a duel that won’t be soon forgotten.

Los Altos held a tenuous one-run lead heading to the bottom of the seventh and came within millimeters of pulling off the win. But a throw for a game-ending and league-championship-clinching double play on Wednesday hit the dirt and rolled away and two Los Gatos runners crossed the plate.

Game over. Final score: Los Gatos 2, Los Altos 1.

“A great game between the two top teams in the league,” Los Gatos coach Mike Minkel said. “Games like that, runs are hard to come by. Two horses on the mound doing what they’ve been doing all year.”

Los Gatos’ Sage Romero (6) bunts the ball against Los Altos in the seventh inning at Los Gatos High School in Los Gatos, Calif., on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group) 

As a result, Los Gatos, Los Altos and Palo Alto go into the final day of the regular season tied for first place in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division standings at 10-3.

Los Gatos (22-4) will play at Los Altos and Palo Alto will host Wilcox on Friday.

Los Altos took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth. Kai MacQuiddy hit a one-out single, went to third on Emmett Heath’s hit-and-run single to right, and scored on an error.

Cash carried the one-run advantage into the bottom of the seventh, but issued a leadoff walk to Donovan Freed. Jayden Thomas pinch ran for Freed and Brayden Smith laid down a perfect bunt along the first-base line. Los Altos had elected not to have its first baseman charging, so Cash had some distance to go to pick it up. His throw to first was too late to get the out.

Sage Romero then bunted the runners over to second and third. Rowen Smith was walked intentionally to set up the double play and Santino Nanez hit a sharp grounder to the Los Altos second baseman, who flipped to the shortstop for one out, but the hurried throw to first was just a little off target.

Los Gatos’ Ethan Williams (18) pitches against Los Altos in the fourth inning at Los Gatos High School in Los Gatos, Calif., on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group) 

Los Gatos sophomore Ethan Williams pitched a three-hitter, did not walk a batter, struck out six and induced 12 ground-ball outs to improve to 10-1 on the season with a 1.33 ERA.

“I knew early he had his good stuff,” Minkel said. “First six batters of the game pounded the ball right into the ground. If we tied the game and didn’t go ahead we were going to run him back out there. For where he’s at he’s incredibly polished. He knows how to pitch. He studies the game, studies opposing hitters. He studies video. He does all the things you need to do to be exceptional at this level.”

Williams was asked what was working for him:

“Sinker, changeup plays off that, just a little bit slower,” Williams said. “A cutter that moves the other way than the tendencies of the changeup and a breaking ball.”

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Los Altos junior southpaw Sky Cash threw a four-hitter and came oh-so-close to a memorable complete-game shutout, division-clinching victory.

“It’s really hard to say one run’s all we’re going to need,” Los Altos coach Gabriel Stewart said. “But Sky Cash almost made it hold up.”

Los Altos (13-11) started the season 1-6, but swept Palo Alto the first week of league play and took off from there, staying in first place the duration of the divisional season.

“All credit to the team,” Stewart said. “They stuck with it and we’re still in position to play for something pretty meaningful. Other teams, they get that kind of start, they don’t have the mental resilience and strength to get through it. These guys are tough. They’re going to keep on working hard and we’re going to bounce back.”

Los Altos’ Sly Cash (3) pitches against Los Gatos in the fourth inning at Los Gatos High School in Los Gatos, Calif., on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)  Los Gatos’ Carter Johnstone (2) slides into third as Los Altos’ Quinn Chiochios (8) catches the ball in the fourth inning at Los Gatos High School in Los Gatos, Calif., on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)  Los Altos’ Brennon Holleb (6) fields a ground ball against Los Gatos in the third inning at Los Gatos High School in Los Gatos, Calif., on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)  Los Gatos’ Santino Nanez (1) fields a ground ball against Los Altos in the third inning at Los Gatos High School in Los Gatos, Calif., on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group) 

Jaedyn Shaw's first-half goal, second-half assist lifts San Diego to home victory

A second straight victory in Colorado has the Giants on the brink of sweeping their first series of the season.

Beating the woeful Rockies again Thursday would be a welcome way to end this 10-game road trip which the Giants started by anemically losing the first two of three in Boston before getting swept in a four-game visit to Philadelphia.

Michael Conforto got Wednesday night’s 8-6 win started by opening the second inning with a first-pitch home run into Coors Field’s right-field seats. That ignited a six-run rally by — let’s double check — yes, an aggressive Giants squad that failed to score that many runs in any of its previous 14 games.

This marked only the fourth time this season the Giants (17-21) have won back-to-back games. Thursday’s 12:10 p.m. PT start pits the Giants’ Keaton Winn (3-4, 4.41) against Cal Quantrill (1-3, 4.31).

After beating the Rockies 5-0 on Monday behind Kyle Harrison’s seven shutout innings, the Giants continued to make offensive strides, and manager Bob Melvin wasn’t going to credit that to playing in a hitter-friendly, mile-high ballpark.

“Our bats have been better this series. I’ve never going to discount that,” Melvin told reporters after the game.

Colorado fell to an MLB-worst 8-28 with its ninth loss in the past 10 games; the Rockies have been swept in four previous series this season. The Giants return to Oracle Park on Friday night for a nine-game homestand, with three-game sets against the Cincinnati Reds, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Rockies again.

Wednesday’s six-run rally matched the Giants’ most runs in an inning since a March 30 win in San Diego, their third game of the season.

After Conforto turned on an inside fastball for his sixth home run of the season (and first in 13 games), the Giants got three consecutive singles, from Matt Chapman, Mike Yastrzemski and Heliot Ramos, the latter of whom got called up from Triple-A Sacramento for not just his season debut but his initiation to hitter-friendly Coors Field.

Ramos’ opposite-field, RBI single scored Chapman for a 2-0 lead. Showing off the hitting prowess that had him batting .296 with eight home runs and 21 RBI in Sacramento, Ramos fell behind 0-2 in his initial at-bat in Colorado, then he fouled off a 1-2 fastball before lining a 94.2-mph sinker to right field.

Ramos served as the designated hitter as the Giants placed slumping slugger Jorge Soler on the 10-day Injury List with a shoulder strain. Ramos had hit just .158 in big-league cameos the past two seasons covering 34 games.

The Giants’ lead climbed to 3-0 when Yastrzemski dove head-first to safely score on Nick Ahmed’s surprising one-out bunt. Jung Hoo Lee made it 4-0 by drilling a slider 105 mph off the right-field wall and driving in Ramos. A two-out, two-RBI flare by LaMonte Wade Jr. pushed the Giants’ lead to 6-0, and Conforto followed with a single for his second hit of the inning, before Chapman flew out to end the long-sought rally.

Another run came the next inning, when a Blake Sabol double scored Ystrzemski for a 7-1 lead.

That proved a wide enough berth to improve Giants starter Jordan Hicks’ record to 3-1.

“This is his first time starting here, so the breaking balls are always, kind of, see how it goes when you’re here and if you have to make any adjustments with it,” Melvin said. “So, yeah, maybe not his best command. He threw a lot of pitches (92), but at the end of the day, he gives us five solid innings and gets the win.”

The first hit Hicks allowed was a 420-foot triple to Brenton Doyle off the center-field wall, on an 0-2, two-out fastball in the bottom of the second; Doyle would score on a passed ball charged to catcher Blake Sabol, for a 6-1 deficit.

Hicks did his share to protect that lead, though he had to work out of jams. Back-to-back strikeouts stranded two Rockies in the fourth, and after Colorado scratched across two runs in the fifth, Hicks induced an inning-ending double play. That ended his night (three runs, seven hits, five strikeouts, two walks in 92 pitches).

“Wasn’t my favorite outing, but we battled, made some good pitches toward the end, got the (fifth inning) double play,” Hicks told reporters in the clubhouse. “… I’m not too down on myself. We got the win. Hopefully we get the sweep tomorrow.”

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Reliever Sean Hjelle yielded two hits to the four batters he faced before Taylor Rogers allowed an RBI single to Charlie Blackmon, cutting the Giants’ lead to 7-4 through six innings. The Giants took an 8-4 lead in the eighth, when Chapman’s infield single prompted an errant throw to bring in Conforto, who reached on a nine-pitch, two-out walk.

Giants closer Camilo Duval walked the first two batters he faced in the ninth. Then he induced a double-play grounder, and that involved him rushing over to cover first base for the second out. But Duval’s next pitch resulted in an Ellias Diaz home run, cutting the Giants’ lead to 8-6. That’s as close as Colorado could get, as Duval got Brendan Rogers to ground out to Nick Ahmed to end it.

Conforto finished 3-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored. Sabol went 3-for-4 with an RBI double. Yasztrzemski was 2-for-4 with a triple and two runs scored.

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SAN JOSE — The principal in the middle of the firestorm that led to Landon Jacobs losing his job as Branham High’s athletic director is leaving the San Jose school. 

Lindsay Schubert has been hired as an assistant principal at Los Gatos High, effective July 1, the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District announced at its board meeting on Tuesday.

Schubert has been under fire by the Branham community for her role in Jacobs and assistant athletic director Heather Cooper being removed from their positions.

Jacobs was dismissed this spring, Cooper last fall.

Schubert did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment.

Supporters of the athletic administrators filed a formal complaint last month to the district office, alleging that Schubert fostered a culture that did not support high school sports and called for her dismissal. The complaint also demanded that Jacobs and Cooper be reinstated to their roles in Branham’s athletic department. 

Campbell Union High School District superintendent Robert Bravo had 30 days to formally address the complaint, which was filed April 4, in order for any of the allegations to be added to a school board agenda.

He submitted a response this week, sources close to the situation said. 

“Yes, we received the response, and it essentially very lightly touches on the Cooper and Landon issues and is sufficient in some areas and extremely insufficient (in) others with regard to the rest of the responses,” a source who was among the group that filed the complaint said in a text message.

Jacobs and his supporters have been waiting to see if details in the complaint will convince the school board to change its mind about the dismissals of Branham’s athletic leaders.

Schubert’s departure could shake up the situation. 

“Time will tell if the new developments will impact the new AD position,” Jacobs told the Bay Area News Group in a text message on Wednesday. 

Some of Jacobs’ supporters suggested that he should apply for Schubert’s position as principal. But Jacobs, who amid the ongoing saga was voted Branham’s Teacher of the Year by his peers last month, said that is unlikely.

“My passion is educationally-based athletics,” Jacobs said. “My hope is that Branham gets an outstanding principal that can effectively meet the needs of our students and the Branham community.”

Schubert is in her second school year at Branham after previously being an assistant principal at Del Mar.

In announcing her hiring at Los Gatos, that school district’s assistant superintendent, Heath Rocha, said during this week’s board meeting, “Lindsay has vast experience in education and leadership, including beginning her teaching career at Los Gatos High School in 2003.”

Jacobs’ situation has led to his supporters passionately speaking in his defense at the past three Campbell Union school board meetings.

Last week, those who spoke included: Jacobs’ wife and Branham girls water polo coach Brittney Ames; his ex-wife Lisa Jacobs; former Branham girls basketball coach Heather Queyrel and members of the Branham sports community.

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Jacobs reapplied for his old position last month but was told recently by a district HR officer that he was not eligible to be a candidate because of rules in the teachers’ collective bargaining agreement.

Jacobs’ supporters believe he could get his old job back if the school board trustees agree to address the complaint’s allegations and rule that he was unjustly dismissed.

The supporters also are awaiting a response from their April 10 public records request for access to all written communication and emails between Bravo, Schubert and members of the board about the athletic director situation, including any investigation into allegations that Jacobs and Cooper mishandled funds.

“The Branham community intends to continue to fight this, show up to support Landon when he receives his Teacher of the Year award at the next board meeting and push for transparency in every aspect of this unjust firing,” a source said in an email Wednesday to the Bay Area News Group.

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