Former Gael in First Summer League Game

Former guard Scott Machado was not selected in last month’s NBA Draft, but his journey trying to make the NBA will take another step forward starting Friday.

Machado will play in his first game with the Houston Rockets Summer League team in Las Vegas Friday. Machado and the Rockets will take on the Toronto Raptors at 6 p.m., and the game will be on NBA TV.

The Rockets are currently thin at the point guard position after they traded last year’s starter Kyle Lowry this week, coincidentally enough, to the Raptors. Goran Dragic, who was the backup last year and moved to the starting role after an injury to Lowry, left Houston to sign with the Phoenix Suns.

Heading into the Summer League, the only point guards on Houston’s roster are Toney Douglas, who the Rockets acquired this week from the New York Knicks in a trade for center Marcus Camby, and Courtney Fortson, who spent most of last year in the NBA Developmental League, but did play in 10 combined games for the Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers as well.

Rockland All-Star Softball Team Heading To States

Backed by a no-hit, 13-strikeout performance by Kaitlyn Fudge, the New City-Suffern-Congers (NCSC) 9-10 softball all-star team is headed to Syracuse to compete in the state tournament.

night at Nanuet Lake to complete a perfect run through the Section 4 tournament. Fudge pitched in three games for NCSC in the tournament and didn’t give up a run. Earlier in the summer, the team went unbeaten throughout the District 18 tournament as well.

“The girls blend together really nicely, especially coming from three different leagues,” said NCSC Head Coach Tom Keaveney. “They all became friends quickly and they really put in the work leading up to the two tournaments, and throughout each tournament as well. They practiced everyday, sometimes two hours a day. I know that they’ll want to get back on the field and start practicing again [Friday], but we’re going to take a day off here.”

Due to low registration numbers in this particular age group in New City, Suffern and Congers Little Leagues, teams from the three leagues all played each other during the regular season, instead of playing just within their respective leagues. Because of that, the team was allowed to pool players from the three leagues for tryouts for the team.

The state tournament runs July 18-24, and Keaveney thinks that while his team will go in unbeaten, there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

“We’ve got to get better on defense and keep hitting. If we improve our defense and keep hitting, I think we’ll be OK,” he said. “We’ve already faced some tough competition. I think Nanuet was the best team we played in the district tournament, and Wappingers Falls was probably the best team we played in this tournament, so we’ve played some really good teams. We still have a lot of practicing to do, though.”

Do You Know A Local Olympian?

With the 2012 Summer Olympics in London starting July 27, Patch is looking for any local athletes participating in or that qualified for the games. 

If you know of any, we’d love to speak with them and ask you to email us at: HVDailySportsDigest@gmail.com.

Sports Poll

This week’s sports poll ? The choices include players who made the team as reserves, but shouldn’t be voted in to start, and players left off both teams entirely.

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