The third region has legitimate threats to the state finals in high school baseball and softball this spring. These teams are Owensboro Catholic baseball; Daviess County in softball.

The KHSAA conducted the state tournament draws for baseball and softball on Thursday.

Daviess County was able to see its possible path in softball and Owensboro Catholic was able to see the same in baseball.

That’s assuming DC and Catholic win their regional tournaments, starting with baseball Saturday at Apollo. Softball is scheduled to start Wednesday, May 25.

It is the third region that faces the ninth region in baseball.

The top four RPI schools compiled by KHSAA are, in order, Louisville Trinity, Owensboro Catholic, McCracken County, Paducah Tilghman. McCracken and Tilghman are together in the 1st Region, so one of them will be gone.

The highest ranked team in the ninth region is of interest to Catholics, as it is No. 5 in the RPI and it is Beechwood. Conner is also in the ninth region and is ranked No. 7 in the RPI.

If Catholic wins third-region baseball, it would be a challenge to qualify for weekend two at Kentucky Proud Park in Lexington.

The winner of the 3-9 Regions match would face the winner of the 4-11 Regions match in the quarter-finals. Madison Central is the 11th-highest-ranked region team at No. 9 in the RPI. Bowling Green is the best team in the fourth region at No. 11 in the RPI.

In softball, the RPI goes in order Ballard, South Warren, McCracken County, Henderson County, Greenwood, Madison Central and Daviess County at No. 7.

For those who don’t think season-ending RPI is some kind of accurate measure of team quality, here’s a look at the top seven in the KHSAA Softball Coaches Survey: Ballard, South Warren, McCracken County, Henderson County and Daviess County at No. 5.

Now that we’ve settled that, the third region has drawn the 14th region, which has Perry County Central as the highest-ranked RPI team at No. 12.

If Daviess County wins 3rd region softball and wins its first state tournament, it would be in a monster quarterfinal game against the winner of the 15th region/seventh region. Ballard (30-0) is the best team in Kentucky and the seventh region.

So teams across the Commonwealth got to take a look at their future in baseball and softball state tournaments. Teams with the talent and ability to qualify for their respective final four paid close attention to their brackets.