Overtime

Pacers again rank in preseason top 10

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USC Aiken's baseball team will officially begin the 2010 season this week as a consensus preseason top-10 selection.

The Pacers are ranked sixth in the Preseason National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association NCAA Division II Poll, released Monday afternoon.

It is USC Aiken's third top 10 preseason ranking. The Pacers checked in at No. 9 in the Ping!Baseball preseason poll, and at No. 6 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper NCAA Division II preseason poll released in December.

- WKSX-FM (92.7) will broadcast eight Pacer baseball games this season. The station broadcast all of USC Aiken's games in the 2009 Peach Belt Conference Baseball Tournament last season, along with all of the Pacers' games in the 2009 NCAA Division II Southeast Regional.

Boxing

Hopkins, Jones Jr. will fight rematch

Seventeen years after their first fight, Bernard Hopkins will meet Roy Jones Jr. in a rematch in April in Las Vegas.

The 45-year-old Hopkins (50-5-1, 32 KOs) is a former middleweight and light heavyweight champion. He defeated Enrique Ornelas by unanimous decision in a light heavyweight bout in Philadelphia in December.

The 41-year-old Jones (54-6, 40 KOs) is coming off a loss to Australian Danny Green in the first round, also in December.

On May 22, 1993, in Washington, D.C., Hopkins lost a unanimous decision to Jones for the vacant IBF middleweight crown.

The rematch is scheduled for April 3 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center and will be broadcast on pay-per-view.

- Manny Pacquiao was honored as the fighter of the decade by the Boxing Writer's Association of America, along with matching Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield by winning his third fighter of the year award.

Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KOs) capped off a remarkable decade by stopping welterweight Miguel Cotto in the final round in November to win a title in a record-setting seventh weight division.

Pacquiao will return to the ring in March when he defends his WBO belt against Joshua Clottey at the $1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium in Dallas.

Olympics

Injured skiers should be ready for Games

The CEO of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association says Olympic freestyle skiers Daron Rahlves and Casey Puckett are recuperating at home and should be ready for the Vancouver Games.

Rahlves was released from the hospital Sunday after dislocating his hip in a nasty wreck during his opening skicross race at the Winter X Games. Puckett, the Americans' other skicross Olympian, had a minor setback last week in his recovery from a separated shoulder after landing awkwardly during a run.

CEO Bill Marolt said Monday he expects Rahlves and Puckett both will be "fully ready to go" by the time they arrive in Vancouver. Skicross makes its Olympic debut Feb. 21 with the men's race.

Former Olympians in Alpine skiing, Rahlves and Puckett are both still in search of their first Olympic medal.

Tennis

Austrian advances to Zagreb second round

In Zagreb, Croatia, third-seeded Jurgen Melzer defeated Daniel Brands , of Germany, 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the second round of the Zagreb Indoors tournament.

The left-handed Austrian was broken while serving for the first set at 5-3, but he broke back the next game to secure the set.

Melzer will next face Belgian Olivier Rochus , who ousted Igor Kunitsyn of Russia, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.

Top-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia will play his first-round match Wednesday against Jan Haje k of the Czech Republic.

- In Johannesburg, Blaz Kavcic , of Slovenia, beat France's Thierry Ascione 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 on a rain-soaked opening day at the SA Tennis Open.

Stephane Robert , of France, defeated American Brendan Evans 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.