Morgan Stickey makes history on and off the ice
The only American-born female to ever be drafted by the WHL, Morgan Stickney is, at the end of the day, still just a teenager.
Good morning and welcome to The Morning Column presented by The Sporting Tribune. Please subscribe if you haven’t done so already. It’s free and will be delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. OK, let’s get to it!
1. Morgan Stickey makes history on and off the ice
The only American-born female to ever be drafted by the WHL, Morgan Stickney is, at the end of the day, still just a teenager, writes The Sporting Tribune’s Deborah Lew.
Morgan Stickney made history on May 11 by becoming the first American-born female to be drafted in the Western Hockey League Prospects Draft when she was selected in the tenth round, 215th overall, by the Portland Winterhawks. A goaltender who just finished her freshman year at Shattuck-St. Mary’s where she plays on the Girls U16 team, Stickney ended the season with a record of 23-4-3 with a .928 save percentage and a goals-against average of 1.52.
That’s a pretty impressive weight stack for a 15-year-old.
Now that it’s summer break, Stickney is at home with her family in Redondo Beach, but she trains on local ice whenever she can with friends and coaches. There is also a five-day summer workout plan that Stickney and her teammates from Shattuck-St. Mary’s adhere to on a weekly basis. While her rigorous schedule requires discipline, Stickney is largely self-motivated.
“Yeah, it’s mostly just me. [My parents] always just say ‘do what you want’ so they’re not going to pressure me to do anything because they know if they pressure me I don’t want to do it,” says Stickney, who idolized Team USA netminder, Alex Rigsby, growing up.
2. Padres sweep the Angels behind strong all-around performance
The Padres swept the Angels thanks to the bat of Manny Machado, writes The Sporting Tribune’s Fernando Ramirez.
It took the Padres 87 games to get their first sweep in the United States (they swept the Giants in Mexico City in early May), and it came against the Los Angeles Angels after a 5-3 victory.
This was their first sweep at Petco Park since June 22, 2022, against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
They were overdue.
"Feels good to win," third baseman Manny Machado said. "I think just taking it day by day playing good baseball, like we have been this whole week and continue doing that."
The Padres scored early after Angels pitcher Patrick Sandoval had bases loaded and saw Juan Soto trying to lead off second, so he threw it there, but a bad throw brought in Fernando Tatis Jr. to kick things off at 1-0.
Los Angeles answered quickly at the top of the second inning when Luis Rengifo hit a single toward Tatis Jr., but he bobbled the ball bringing in Hunter Renfroe to tie things up.
3. Sporting Tribune MLB Mock Draft 1.0
The Sporting Tribune's Taylor Blake Ward releases his first MLB Mock Draft as we are just over a week away from the first selection of the 2023 MLB Draft.
As we are just over a week away from the first selection of the 2023 MLB Draft, Taylor Blake Ward of The Sporting Tribune has put together his first MLB Mock Draft for the year. Team executives, decision makers, and crosscheckers flew in across the country last week and over the weekend to their respective club locations or draft meeting settings to finalize their big boards and systematically map out of a gameplan for the draft in their own personal favor following the College World Series and MLB Draft Combine where they finalized their collection of data and concluded some in-person interviews.
There is a consensus top five talents in this draft, with the often consensus top position player and top pitcher going 1-2 in some order between LSU's Dylan Crews and Paul Skenes. The remaining three of the five have all been mentioned with the top two picks and further with some questions about one of them falling a few picks out of the top five selections. After that, Wake Forest's Rhett Lowder and Virginia's Kyle Teel are in an odd second tier that's not distant from the top five or the next tier of about 12-15 players which could go anywhere from picks 6-20 with the eventual surprise one or two that fall into the 20-25 range.
4. Aces survive scare from Dallas Wings
The Las Vegas Aces overcame a 14-point deficit to remain undefeated at home with an 89-82 win over the Dallas Wings, writes The Sporting Tribune’s W.G. Ramirez.
The top two teams in the Western Conference squared off in an arena the defending champion Las Vegas Aces hadn't lost in all season.
That undefeated mark inside Michelob Ultra Arena remains intact - now at 10-0 - but it didn't come easy.
Jackie Young scored 28 points and the Aces (16-1) overcame a 14-point deficit to defeat the Dallas Wings 89-82 on Wednesday in front of a sold-out crowd.
A'ja Wilson added 22 points and 13 rebounds, her 11th double-double of the season. Chelsea Gray, who led the Aces' second-half attack, finished with 20 points, and Alysha Clark chipped in with 10.
After allowing Dallas to score 51 in the first half, the Aces' defense locked down the Wings in the second half, holding them to 31 in the 3rd and 4th quarters.
Dallas' Natasha Howard led all scorers with 32 points, while grabbing 13 rebounds. Teaira McCowan also registered a double-double for the Wings (8-9), with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Arike Ogunbowale added 12 points for Dallas, and Crystal Dangerfield finished with 11.
5. Sparks’ losing streak reaches four after Dream defeat
The Los Angeles Sparks lost to the Atlanta Dream for the second game in a row, writes The Sporting Tribune’s Rey Moralde.
The Sparks just can't catch a break.
L.A. had another injury happen and it was too much for them to make a comeback after a not-so-desirable first quarter as the Dream got the best of them for the second straight game, 90-79.
The Dream made shots early while Los Angeles did not. Atlanta got off to a 15-5 beginning. And it carried on throughout the quarter as the Dream led after one, 29-16.
It was better for L.A. in the second quarter. A couple of threes did cut the deficit to single digits at one point but the Dream just couldn't stop making shots. Atlanta went into the half with a 53-40 lead.
It seemed like the Sparks got on track early in the second half. Azura Stevens especially got hot as she went on a personal 6-0 run. That cut the deficit to 56-51. But the Dream went on a 13-0 run that gave them their biggest lead at 18. Zia Cooke made a jumper to cut it down to 71-58 entering the fourth.
6. Dodgers perform a comeback of their own and win, 6-4
An explosive 4th and 5th innings put the Dodgers ahead for good Wednesday night, writes The Sporting Tribune’s Grant Mona.
After a horrible loss Tuesday night, the Dodgers did exactly what they needed and won in their own comeback fashion the next game. It did not look good to start, even after Bobby Miller took the mound, who at this point seems like the Dodgers’ ace now that Clayton Kershaw is on the IL. He gave up 4 earned runs in 5 ⅔ innings.
The Pirates came out swinging, and took a four run lead after three innings on a Bryan Reynolds homer in the 1st and a Jack Suwinski 3-run bomb to right in the 4th. Much like the game Tuesday night, the Dodgers immediately retaliated with 2 of their own runs to cut the deficit to 4-2 on a Jason Heyward sacrifice fly and Miguel Rojas RBI single. Then they ambushed the Pirates in the 5th inning with a J.D. Martinez 3-run home run to left to give the Dodgers their first lead of the game and a David Peralta bomb to left to make it back-to-back and 6-4.
7. Odds and Ends presented by Circa Sports
Here are some odds at Circa Sports if you’re thinking about placing a wager today:
8. Ticket Time presented by TickPick
Here are the “get in” prices for tickets if you’re thinking about going to a game today.
7:00 p.m. – Pirates at Dodgers – $21
9. On the Air presented by The D Las Vegas
Here are the game times and television channels for professional teams in the region today.
7:00 p.m. – Pirates at Dodgers – SportsNet LA
10. The Arash Markazi Show presented by The Sporting Tribune
The Sporting Tribune’s Arash Markazi is joined by Brandon Deutsch and Armani Buckets to talk about where James Harden and Damian Lillard will end up this offseason and which one would be a better fit with the Clippers?
Listen to The Arash Markazi Show presented by The Sporting Tribune on The Mightier 1090 ESPN Radio in Southern California, 98.5 The Bet in Las Vegas and the Hawaii Sports Radio Network 95.1 FM and 760 AM in Hawaii. You can also listen to the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher.
Thank you for reading. Please click below to subscribe to The Morning Column presented by The Sporting Tribune. It’s free and will be delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.
That’s it for today. Talk to you tomorrow!