Tracking the baseball districts ...

The Third District race became a bit clearer last week, although not all of the seedings are settled just yet, and next week's showdown between fierce rivals Murray and Calloway County will settle the Fourth District pairings.

Let's take a look at the races that will make the biggest impact on the road to the regional tournament:

Lone Oak has the inside track on the top seed in the Second District, but needs to beat Heath on May 11 to nail it down. Paducah Tilghman is likely to finish fourth and face the Purple Flash in the semifinals, but can possibly avoid that fate by sweeping Reidland and Heath in its final two district games.

Graves County's sweep of Ballard Memorial and Mayfield's sweep of St. Mary means it's likely that the Eagles will take on St. Mary in the Third District's postseason opener. Graves has locked down the top seed, and the Vikings will have to sweep Ballard Memorial this week to work their way out of the cellar.

Even if that is the first-round contest, the potential pitching match up — St. Mary's Chris Hunt (assuming he's back from injury) against either Ryan Hayden or Andrew Shultz — makes it much more interesting than the usual 1-4 fare.

Murray needs to take one of two in its series with Calloway to lock down the top seed in the Fourth District, which would put the Lakers against a Marshall County team with which it split a pair this week. If Calloway gets the sweep, Murray would meet Marshall for a spot in the regional tournament.

• Under the new postseason format, the First Region champion goes directly into a 16-team state tournament at Applebee's Park in Lexington instead of competing in a best-of-three series against another regional winner.

Unfortunately, the First Region didn't get a palatable draw — the 11th Region champion awaits. Seven of the top 25 teams in the state coaches' poll will compete for that regional crown, including No. 1 Lexington Catholic and No. 2 Lexington Christian. Lexington Tates Creek is ranked fifth, followed by Frankfort-area schools Franklin County (13th) and Western Hills (15th), Lexington Lafayette (16th) and Lexington Dunbar (25th).

And you think your district is tough? The 43rd District has five ranked teams — Lexington Catholic, Lexington Christian, Tates Creek, Lafayette and Dunbar.