10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JULY 18, 2017
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
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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.