Leading off

last updated: May 16, 2008 12:51:46 AM

East Union, Orestimba due up

Erin Arevalo (left) and Julianna Santos (right), four-year stars off to the Southeastern Conference in the fall to continue their softball careers, hope to bring their teams a step closer to a Sac-Joaquin Section title tonight. Arevalo and East Union (25-4) face Bear River (27-2) in Division IV, and Santos and Orestimba (25-3) play Hilmar (19-5) in D-V. Both winners' bracket finals are at

5 p.m. at Arnaiz Stadium in Stockton. Escalon (18-9) faces Linden (22-4) at 5 in the losers' bracket, and the winner plays the Hilmar-Orestimba loser at 7. The finals will be Saturday at Arnaiz.

Barkley will pay up

Charles Barkley acknowledged he owes a $400,000 gambling debt to a Las Vegas Strip casino and promised Thursday to repay it after a prosecutor said the retired NBA star faced criminal charges. "My mistake," Barkley said in an interview at a pro-am golf tournament in Hoover, Ala. "I'm not broke, and I'm going to take care of it." Barkley was responding to comments by Clark County District Attorney David Roger, who said prosecutors would file a criminal complaint if he did not pay the debt cited by the Wynn Las Vegas resort. The casino alleged in a civil complaint filed Wednesday and first reported by the Las Vegas Sun that Barkley failed to repay four $100,000 casino markers, or loans, received last Oct. 18 and 19. Barkley played 16 NBA seasons. He was named league MVP in 1993 and was an 11-time NBA All-Star.

Eight in a million

Eight fans will get a chance to win $1 million for making a hole-in-one on a par-3 before the Players Club tournament on the Nationwide Tour. Contestants in the Wells Fargo Players Cup Shootout will be chosen each Friday for the next two months at the Outback restaurant in Bridgeport, Conn. They'll try to ace the 185-yard 16th hole at the Pete Dye Golf Club on July 6. The Players Cup is July 10-13.

Hog 'Heaven' for fan

The Grand Prairie AirHogs minor league baseball team will offer one lucky fan a free funeral. The "All Hogs Go to Heaven" promotion will pay for funeral expenses, valued at $10,000. It includes a casket, headstone, plot and services. The sales manager of the cemetery said the award's expiration date is the same as the winner's. "If you're 20 and you get it and you live to be 90, of course we'll still honor it," Oak Grove Memorial Gardens sales manager Ron Alexander told The Dallas Morning News.

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