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

Orange County’s softball pairings for the CIF Southern California Regional were not only light Sunday as expected.

They were challenging, too.

Mater Dei and Oxford Academy, the county’s lone automatic qualifiers to opt into the tournament — both received challenging road games for the first round on Tuesday, May 28.

Mater Dei (14-12) drew the No. 8 seed in the eight-team Division I bracket and a 61-mile road trip to top-seeded Murrieta Mesa (25-4).

In Division IV, Oxford Academy (25-6) received the No. 7 seed and a 64-mile trek to No. 2 Oceanside (22-6-1).

Mater Dei, the fourth-place team from the Trinity League, accepted its automatic berth after reaching the CIF-SS Division 2 semifinals.

Oxford Academy, the fourth-place from the 605 League, claimed its bid after finishing as the CIF-SS Division 7 runner-up to Eastside of Lancaster.

Eastside received the No. 6 seed in Division IV and would host Oxford Academy in the semifinals Thursday if both teams advance.

The dominate storyline leading up to the release of the brackets Sunday was the number of O.C. teams that declined either automatic bids or invitations to the fourth-year event. The reasons included the schedule, conflict with travel softball and lack of a state championship format.

Murrieta Mesa secured the No. 1 seed by reaching the CIF-SS Division 1 semifinals, where it fell to top-seeded Orange Lutheran.

Oceanside won the Division 3 crown in the San Diego Section as the No. 5 seed by overcoming an early loss in the double-elimination tournament.

The schools with the best seed serve as the host in each round of the week-long regional tournament.

Last season, Fullerton became the first O.C. school to win a regional title by capturing Division III. The No. 2 seeded Indians defeated No. 1 Otay Ranch 7-0 in Chula Vista.

California cops have agreed to pay a nearly $1million settlement after they forced a confession out of a mentally unstable man by threatening to kill his dog if he did not falsely admit to murdering his father – who was alive and well. 

Thomas Perez Jr was questioned by police for over 17 hours in 2018 in an interrogation that amounted to ‘unconstitutional psychological torture,’ according to the judge. 

Perez reported his father missing to police. He was never formally arrested, but was still taken to the Fontana Police Department on August 8, 2018 to be questioned. 

He was told by officers that if he didn’t confess to murdering his father, they would have to put his dog to sleep due to ‘depression’ over witnessing a murder that never occurred. 

After hours of interrogation, Perez became visibly distressed and resorted to self destructive acts including pulling his hair out, hitting himself and tearing off his shirt. 

The judge said he was ‘sleep deprived, mentally ill, and, significantly, undergoing symptoms of withdrawal from his psychiatric medications.’ 

Perez also had reportedly begged for medical attention but was never provided his psychiatric medication. 

He was told his father was found dead with stab wounds, however, police soon after found his father alive and well. Perez’s sister said her father was with a ‘lady friend.’ 

A detective reportedly told him: ‘How can you sit there, how can you sit there and say you don’t know what happened, and your dog is sitting there looking at you, knowing that you killed your dad? 

‘Look at your dog. She knows, because she was walking through all the blood.’ 

After 17 hours of interrogation, Perez finally admitted to the crime he didn’t commit.

Perez also had reportedly begged for medical attention but was never provided his psychiatric medication. When the two interrogating officers left Perez alone in the room, he attempted suicide by hanging

After 17 hours of interrogation, Perez finally admitted to the crime he didn’t commit

When the two interrogating officers left Perez alone in the room, he attempted suicide by hanging. 

California Judge Dolly Gee ruled last June that the evidence in the case would convince the jury that the questioning amounted to ‘unconstitutional psychological torture.’ 

Footage of the interrogation was released, sparking outrage and a long legal battle before the city of Fontana, California, finally agreed to a $900,000 settlement.

His lawyer Jerry Steering told the Orange County Register, ‘Mentally torturing a false confession out of Tom Perez, concealing from him that his father was alive and well, and confining him in the psych ward because they made him suicidal.’ 

‘In my 40 years of suing the police I have never seen that level of deliberate cruelty by the police,’ he continued. 

‘This case shows that if the police are skilled enough, and they grill you hard enough, they can get anybody to confess to anything.’ 

The city of Fontana, California, finally agreed to pay Thomas Perez Jr (pictured) a $900,000 settlement. Perez was questioned by police for over 17 hours in 2018 in an interrogation that amounted to ‘unconstitutional psychological torture’

After being coerced into confession, Perez was involuntarily admitted to a psych ward, where he remained in isolation for three days. Police never told him that his father was found alive. For three days, he sat alone in the psych unit believing that both his father and dog were dead

After confessing, Perez was involuntarily locked away in a psychiatric ward. He was kept there in isolation for three straight days. 

Police reportedly neglected to inform Perez that his father was still alive. His dog was also given to a shelter but later rescued, according to the Telegraph. 

For days, Perez sat alone in the psychiatric unit believing that both his father and dog were dead.

The police department has not specified whether the police officers involved will face any repercussions.  

LAGUNA HILLS, Calif. – A businessman who says sitting on the sidelines isn’t his style is aiming to flip one of California’s battleground House districts away from Democrats as crime and immigration take center stage across the Golden State.

Republican Matt Gunderson, who built multiple auto dealerships from the ground up and serves as chairman of a local hospital foundation board, says his plan to turn California’s 49th District red starts with his involvement in his Southern California community.

“The reality is there’s something in my DNA that believes public service is valuable, and more people should participate, and too few people do,” Gunderson told Fox News Digital in an interview. “You can’t sit here on the sidelines and look at what’s happening in California and not decide, you know what, things have to change.” 

TRUMP VOWS TO ‘SAVE’ DEEP-BLUE NEW YORK CITY IN MASSIVE, HISTORIC BRONX RALLY

“The California that I moved to 25 years ago is so different than the California my four daughters are growing up in,” he said. “You just can’t sit by and watch it all happen without trying to jump in and help push us in the right direction.”

Gunderson sold his businesses in 2021, and became increasingly involved in his community while also supporting Republican candidates in what has traditionally been a competitive battleground pocket within a deep-blue state.

He first ran for political office in 2022, narrowly losing a state Senate race, before ultimately deciding to take his desire to fix the problems plaguing California to the next level of government.

Crime is one of those problems, and Gunderson says the way to fix it is “pretty simple.”

“When you don’t punish crime, it just emboldens it and empowers the criminal,” he told Fox. “Zero bail is a huge problem when there’s this constant back in and out, and recidivism among the same people doing it. We’ve got to put a stop to it.” 

BIDEN’S ABORTION SCRIPT FLIPPED BY BUSINESSWOMAN’S BOOST TO PRO-LIFE GROUPS

Republican businessman and congressional candidate Matt Gunderson speaks with a voter during a campaign stop. (Gunderson for Congress)

Gunderson said that ever since the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, police have been “demoralized,” “immobilized,” and just not allowed to do their job.

“We have these ridiculous levels of theft that are allowed. When there are no repercussions and no punishment, what’s the incentive for these criminals to stop doing what they’re doing? And I think people have finally become completely at wit’s end on it,” he said, before expressing his support for rolling back Prop 47, a state ballot measure passed in 2014 that softened penalties for certain crimes.

Another issue Gunderson said needed to be addressed was the ongoing crisis at the southern border, something he blamed squarely on President Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“Biden, with his executive orders on the first day of his presidency, opened the floodgates at the border. And it’s become a major issue in California because we’re now the epicenter for the illegal crossings,” he said, praising Texas and Arizona for taking action at the state level to address the problem.

“Sacramento, under the leadership of Gavin Newsom, and our country under the leadership of Joe Biden, do nothing to tighten the border of California,” he said.

TOP KENNEDY STAFFER STEPS DOWN FROM ROLE CITING ‘HATEFUL AND DIVISIVE ATMOSPHERE’

Republican businessman and congressional candidate Matt Gunderson. (Gunderson for Congress)

Calling it a public health, human rights and economic crisis for Southern California, Gunderson warned of deadly fentanyl continuing to flow over the border, and of illegal migrants overrunning medical and educational resources intended for tax-paying Americans.

“I came to California 25 years ago, and I didn’t come here to buy a business, I came here to build a business. And I built three of them, and I created hundreds of jobs. And so, I know on a personal level what California politics and Sacramento one-party rule does to strangle entrepreneurs and small businesses,” Gunderson said when asked why he was the best choice for voters in the district.

He argued that excessive taxation and regulation were driving economic conditions and prices to a point where people were being forced to leave the state, permanently damaging communities.

Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., speaks during the news conference on the Invest to Protect Act outside the Capitol on May 12, 2022. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“I came up through the school of hard knocks, and the building of business and working alongside your fellow community members to build better communities and stronger communities. And I think that gives me a completely different perspective than an environmental lawyer who is immersed in bureaucracy and thinks government is the answer to every problem,” he said, referencing his opponent, incumbent Democrat Rep. Mike Levin. 

“I don’t think government is always a solution. There’s a proper role for government. But man alive, the closer to home decisions are made, the better off we are,” he added.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Levin’s campaign for comment.

Although elections analysts rate the race for California’s 49th Congressional District as “likely Democratic,” it is expected to be among the most competitive in the state this year.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.