Baseball

Orem, Ogden head into extra innings

OGDEN -- Ogden's Mario Songco homered with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning Wednesday night to tie the Ogden Raptors' game with the Orem Owlz at 5-5 and send it into extra innings.

The game was still going on at press time.

Richard Cates was 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI to lead Orem in regulation.

NBA

Maynor signs two-year deal with Jazz

SALT LAKE CITY -- First-round draft pick Eric Maynor has officially signed with the Utah Jazz.

Maynor signed the two year deal on Wednesday as the Jazz summer league team began a minicamp in Florida. The Jazz will play in Orlando starting July 6. As the 20th overall pick in the draft, Maynor gets $1.3 million his rookie season. The Jazz plan to use Maynor to back up starting point guard Deron Williams.

Maynor was the two-time Colonial Athletic Association player of the year at Virginia Commonwealth and led the league in assists per game his last three seasons.

• Kruger, Ingram join Jazz summer league team: Former Utah Flash guards Kevin Kruger and Andre Ingram will join the Utah Jazz in the 2009 Orlando Pro Summer League Jazz General Manager Kevin O'Connor announced Tuesday evening.

Both Kruger and Ingram will be in attendance as the Jazz summer squad opens its mini-camp today at the RDV SportsPlex in Maitland, Florida in preparation for the July 6 opening of the five-day, 15 game Orlando summer league. The Jazz summer squad will open play at 5 p.m. MT on July 6 with a matchup against the Boston Celtics summer team.

• Ainge says Big 3 may play beyond current contracts: The Big Three of the Boston Celtics very well could stick around beyond their current contracts with a changing cast of supporting players. Ray Allen will be 34 after the one year left on his contract, Paul Pierce will be 33 after his two remaining years and Kevin Garnett will be 36 after the three years left on his deal.

General manager Danny Ainge was enthusiastic Wednesday about the idea that they might stay longer than that if they are healthy.

"Absolutely, no question," he said. "If they take good care of themselves, which all three of them do, and they stay healthy I think there's a really good chance. I think all those guys will be up in my office pretty quick looking for more years on their contracts."

Ainge also said he planned to address the contract situation of point guard Rajon Rondo this summer after handling more pressing matters that came with the start of the free-agent signing period Wednesday. Rondo will make $2.62 million next season, and the Celtics can make a qualifying offer after 2010-2011 to make him a restricted free agent and allow the team to match any offer he receives.

Glen Davis, a solid replacement when Garnett missed much of the second half of the season and all of the playoffs with a knee injury, plans to seek free agent offers that the Celtics will have a chance to match. Backup forward Leon Powe was allowed to become a free agent and isn't expected to return. He could miss more than half the season following surgery for a serious knee injury in the playoffs. Substitute guard Eddie House, an effective 3-point shooter, decided to fulfill the last year of his contract for $2.86 million rather than exercise his option to become a free agent.

The Celtics had no first-round pick this year after trading it to Minnesota in the Garnett deal before the 2007-08 season when they won their 17th NBA championship. They chose guard Lester Hudson of Tennessee-Martin with the 58th pick of the 60-pick draft.

"Every year there's players picked at 58 and ... they rarely do make it," Ainge said. "I think Lester has the opportunity of a lifetime that a lot of people would like."

• Pistons land pair; Kidd, Gortat seem in demand: The Detroit Pistons wanted to add talent and get younger this offseason. On the first day of free agency, Detroit did both. Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva agreed in principle to five-year contracts with the Pistons, a person with the knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press on Wednesday night.

The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because NBA rules prohibit announcing deals with free agents until next week, said Gordon's contract is worth $50-plus million and Villanueva will make at least $35 million.

Those were the first big moves of the NBA's free agency period, which began just after midnight. Detroit, thanks to the Chauncey Billups-Allen Iverson trade, is one of the few teams with significant salary cap space this summer. Gordon and Villanueva are former Connecticut teammates who will remain in the Central Division. Gordon was Chicago's leading scorer and Villanueva played for Milwaukee.

Jason Kidd also seems in high demand, meeting with two suitors on the opening day of free agency in the NBA. So does Marcin Gortat, who could land an offer to be Kidd's teammate. And Ron Artest might be able to swap Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady for LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal.

Cleveland was believed to be interested in Villanueva, in need of another forward who can defend on the perimeter. Perhaps James has a different one in mind, with the Plain Dealer of Cleveland, citing anonymous sources, reporting Wednesday that James and Artest met Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Artest's agent, David Bauman, said his client would like to remain in Houston, but also will consider a team's championship potential. Artest is the only healthy member of the Rockets' trio of stars, with Yao and McGrady both injured and perhaps out for at least the early part of next season. In that case, he may be willing to listen to a pitch from another title hopeful.

"All the superstars are very savvy and great recruiters," Bauman said. "The superstars are sometimes even better recruiters than the general managers or their staffs. Between Kobe (Bryant) and Ron or LeBron and Ron, there are always conversations that occur. I think I'll just leave it at that at this point."

Kidd listened to pitches from both Dallas and New York on Wednesday. The Mavericks can offer significantly more money to their point guard, and owner Mark Cuban showed his interest by flying to New York to meet with Kidd before the Knicks did.

Later Wednesday, Cuban wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press that the get-together "went well, I was really happy how it turned out."

• Dumars says he wants new coach by next Tuesday: The Detroit Pistons don't plan to wait long to name a replacement for fired coach Michael Curry. Joe Dumars, the Pistons' president for basketball operations, doesn't have a "complete list" of candidates but wants to act in less than a week, before next Tuesday's opening practice for the NBA developmental league.

"My goal is to have a head coach in place by the time we go out to Las Vegas," Dumars said in a video posted on the team's Web site. The NBA Summer League runs July 10-19.

WNBA

Parker rejoins Sparks after giving birth

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Candace Parker has returned to practice with the Los Angeles Sparks 1 ½ months after giving birth to her first child.

However, coach Michael Cooper said Wednesday that it's unlikely Parker would play when the team hosts Phoenix on Sunday. Parker, last year's league MVP and rookie of the year, had a daughter named Lailaa on May 13. She's married to Shelden Williams of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Parker went through a full practice Wednesday following a light workout a day earlier that included shooting, ball handling and skill drills.

"It was great," she said. "I was just really excited to practice so I treated it like a game almost because you miss it. I've been away from basketball for nine months, 10 months really, so it's great to be back on the court."

There is no timetable for Parker's return to playing. After Sunday, the Sparks open a seven-game road trip and she isn't scheduled to travel with the team.

"We're going to play it by ear," she said. "I'd like to have a couple days of practice and then I'll probably have a better idea."

Cooper said he was encouraged by seeing Parker back in action.

"It's a matter of her feeling really, really comfortable and not just looking comfortable," he said. "Fifty percent of Candace is better than a lot of players, 90 percent than some of the players, but all we're going to do is just gauge her (progress)."

As a rookie, Parker averaged 18.5 points and a league-leading 9.5 rebounds.

Parker said she worked out three days before giving birth and resumed two weeks after.

"I'm a gym rat," she said. "I love to be in the gym, work out, and play."

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