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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 18, 2017)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JULY 18, 2017 CONTACT US FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorianSports Gary Henley | Sports Reporter ghenley@dailyastorian.com Top of the draft board shines at Summer League By JON KRAWCZYNSKI Associated Press The depth and quality of the 2017 NBA draft had teams tanking at the end of the regular season in hopes of vaulting into the top three picks. With the huge caveat being that it was only summer league action, those at the top of the draft made quite a first impression. Summer league play ended on Monday night after the Los Ange- les Lakers beat Portland in the Las Vegas league championship game. Over leagues played in Orlando, Salt Lake City and Vegas, many of the top 10 picks gave their teams plenty to feel good about before heading into the league’s quiet period for the next SCOREBOARD CAL RIPKEN BASEBALL STATE TOURNAMENTS North Oregon 12U July 14-16, at Dundee/Newberg Pool Standings West Linn, 3-0 Portland, 2-1 Lower Columbia, 1-2 Newberg, 0-3 Friday’s Scores West Linn 7, Lower Columbia 1 Portland 10, Newberg 0 Saturday’s Scores West Linn 13, Newberg 4 Portland 12, Lower Columbia 4 Lower Columbia 14, Newberg 1 West Linn 16, Portland 12 Sunday’s Scores Semifinals West Linn 11, Newberg 0 Portland 6, Lower Columbia 1 Third Place Lower Columbia 14, Newberg 4 Championship Portland 8, West Linn 7 two months. No. 2 pick Lonzo Ball owned Vegas with a pair of triple-doubles and was named Vegas MVP. Top pick Mar- kelle Fultz showed off his wide array of scoring tricks in Utah before sit- ting out much of Vegas with an ankle injury and No. 3 pick Jayson Tatum of Boston was drawing comparisons to Paul Pierce while dominating both in Utah and Nevada. The competition these rookies will face will increase exponentially when training camps open in October. And there is a long list of summer league standouts — Nikoloz Tskitishvili, any- one? — who never amounted to any- thing in the NBA. But for struggling franchises like the Lakers, Sixers, Suns and Kings, seeing some real prom- ise from their youngsters the first time they step on the court is encouraging. “Lonzo definitely gave the team a lot of confidence as this thing went along,” Lakers coach Luke Walton said. “The way he plays, he’s always got his poise about him, just an incred- ible basketball player and with the unselfish nature he plays the game, it just becomes contagious and I think other guys started picking up and play- ing off of that.” Winning a summer league title cer- tainly doesn’t mean the suffering of the last four years is over for the Lak- ers. Far from it. The real test comes in a couple of months. But for several franchises that are in the business of selling hope right now, business is good. Portland Trail Blazers’ Antonius Cleveland shoots around Los Angeles Lakers’ Kyle Kuzma during the first half of an NBA summer league basketball game on Monday in Las Vegas. AP Photo John Locher Seager’s homer in 10th lifts Mariners over Astros By KRISTIE RIEKEN Associated Press HOUSTON — The Seattle Mariners tied a season high by hitting four homers includ- ing back-to-back shots by Kyle Seager and Danny Valencia in the 10th inning to get a 9-7 win over the Houston Astros on Monday night. However, after the game it wasn’t the powerful offense but Jean Segura’s defense that everyone was talking about. Josh Reddick was on second with no outs in the ninth inning when Segura snagged a grounder by Marwin Gonzalez backhanded and threw him out at first. Later in the inning he threw Reddick out at home on a fielder’s choice on a ball hit by Nori Aoki. But Segura wasn’t done yet. After an intentional walk loaded the bases, Segura had another back- handed grab on a grounder hit by Alex Breg- man and tossed it to second for the force out to send it to the 10th. “The defense (from) Jean throughout there was just unbelievable,” manager Scott Ser- vais said. “The backhand stop that was the key out in the inning getting the first out with Marwin Gonzalez. Then the play at home, the backhand with the force play. There was a lot going on that inning.” Segura was asked about the last play of that inning. “I knew the only chance I had was the force at second,” he said. “It was just ‘go get it.’ It was the last out and if I don’t get it or make an error, they win the game. I tried to make the play as quick as I (could).” And it wasn’t just the Mariners who raved about Segura’s work. “Both plays were exceptional plays,” A.J. Hinch said. “Obviously, we would love to cre- ate more situations for ourselves, but it’s hard to argue that he didn’t have the most import- ant plays of the game.” The wild back and forth game was tied at 7-7 entering the 10th when Seager, who fin- ished with three hits, connected off Tony Sipp (0-1) on a shot to the seats in right field. Valen- cia added an insurance run when he launched a slider to center field three pitches later. North Oregon 11U July 14-16, at Sandy Pool Standings West Linn, 4-0 Sandy, 3-1 Lower Columbia, 2-2 Gresham, 1-3 Lower Columbia Red, 0-4 Friday’s Scores West Linn 10, Sandy 0 Lower Columbia 17, Gresham 7 West Linn 24, Lower Columbia Red 0 Sandy 18, Gresham 5 Lower Columbia 5, Lower Columbia Red 4 Saturday’s Scores West Linn 23, Gresham 0 Sandy 14, Lower Columbia 6 Gresham 11, Lower Columbia Red 10 West Linn 15, Lower Columbia 0 Sandy 6, Lower Columbia Red 3 Sunday’s Scores Semifinals West Linn 15, Gresham 0 Sandy 7, Lower Columbia 6 Championship West Linn 6, Sandy 2 North Oregon 10U July 14-16, West Linn Pool Standings Blue Division Lakeridge, 2-0 West Linn Tourney, 1-1 Dallas, 0-2 Red Division West Linn 10A, 2-0 Portland, 1-1 Newberg, 0-2 White Division Sandy, 2-0 Gresham, 1-1 Lower Columbia, 0-2 (Lower Columbia Results) Friday’s Scores Gresham 14, Lower Columbia 4 Sandy 21, Lower Columbia 1 Saturday’s Scores (Bracket Play) West Linn 10A 12, Lower Columbia 0 Lower Columbia 13, Dallas 3 Semifinals West Linn 10A 8, Gresham 7 Sandy 12, West Linn Tourney 2 Championship Sandy 4, West Linn 10A 3 UP NEXT: MARINERS AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith Seattle Mariners’ Kyle Seager hugs Nelson Cruz after hitting the go-ahead home run off Houston Astros’ relief pitcher Tony Sipp during the 10th inning of a baseball game Monday in Houston. The Mariners won 9-7 and will play the Astros again tonight. • Seattle Mariners (47-47) at Houston Astros (62-31) • Today, 5:10 p.m. TV: RTNW Long-distance motorcycle trips seek to empower women By JOHN KEKIS Associated Press A year ago Alisa Clickenger helped organize a cross-country motorcycle trip for women to com- memorate the 100-year anniversary of a most amazing ride by two sisters from Brooklyn, New York. The Sisters’ Centennial Motor- cycle Ride honored the exploits of Augusta and Adeline Van Buren, who in 1916 rode motorcycles more than 5,000 miles (8,000 km) across the country to prove that women could be military motorcycle couriers, able to endure long distances and harsh con- ditions as well as men. For Clickenger, it was a breakthrough. “The ride was important to me,” Clickenger said. “It was the reali- zation of a long-held dream of mine to lead a group of women across the United States on motorcycles. See- ing nearly 250 women on motorcy- cles in my rearview mirror riding over the Golden Gate Bridge was epic — something I’ll never forget. It was very emotional for me.” The ride also helped Clickenger demonstrate what her fledgling com- pany, Women’s Motorcycle Tours (http://www.WomensMotorcycle- Tours.com), could accomplish. “For me, part of riding motorcy- cles still is the challenge of embracing the unknown, the mastery of machine and also facing my fears and meet- ing the challenges of an extended motorcycle adventure,” said Click- enger, whose company focuses solely on tours for female motorcyclists. “It was the first time I’ve seen so many manufacturers (Indian and BMW among them) come together for a common goal — promoting women and motorcycling. It was wonderful.” Women own about 14 percent of registered motorcycles, up from 8 percent in 1998, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council’s lat- est numbers. But Genevieve Schmitt, founder and editor of online mag- azine “Women Riders Now” , says those numbers count only new reg- istrations. She says women com- prise nearly 25 percent of those who ride (including passengers), and that makes them major players in the rid- ing business. “Personally, I feel we’ve kind of seen an exponential growth in the 11 to 12 years that I’ve had the site,” Schmitt said. “There is a whole new market of young girls in their 20s who have taken up riding that we haven’t seen, really, in history.” Why are more women taking up motorcycling? Schmitt calls it the “copycat effect. A woman sees another woman riding a motorcycle and says, ‘If she can do it, so can I!’” Manufacturers such as Harley-Da- vidson produce entry-level motorcy- cles but it can still seem “intimidating getting on a powerful vehicle,” said Pam Kermisch, a novice rider who works for Polaris, the company that owns Indian and Victory motorcycle brands. “I did all the classroom stuff. That’s one thing, but it’s another thing to actually get on and do it. Once you do it, it’s very doable. I think for a lot of people, that’s the scary part. I think the second piece of it is that in order to get confidence you have to do it more.” Which is where Clickenger, who lives in Diamond Bar, California, but is on the road most of the time, comes in. Like just about everybody who rides a motorcycle, she identifies with the credo that the only way to travel is on two wheels. In March, she orga- nized an all-female motorcycle tour of Cuba. That will be followed by the Colorado Backcountry Discov- ery Route during the last week of July and a tour of the American Southwest in October departing from Las Vegas. “My company tagline is life-changing experiences on two wheels,” Clickenger said. “The bot- tom line is it’s about empowerment, and the feeling of freedom — free- dom from our fears, freedom from societal constraints, freedom from our own self-constructed, pre-con- ceived constraints and breaking those boundaries.” Clickenger says she isn’t con- cerned that catering to women limits her company’s potential. In fact, that’s the ulterior motive to her venture. “The joy I find bringing women together to ride and explore and become empowered through mastery over machine is what drives me,” said Clickenger.
