At this point we currently know the 8 teams that will be participating in the 9th Region Tournament that will begin on Memorial Day from Thomas More Stadium. The drawing for the bracket will be on Thursday 5/21. Those teams will be:

Beechwood and Conner as 1 seeds

Cov Cath and Ryle as 2 seeds 

On 5/20- Highlands plays NCC for their District title. Dixie plays St.Henry for their District title. 
 

The last time it wasn’t these 8 teams representing in the 9th Region Tournament was 2019 when Boone  county went in instead of Conner. All of these teams are very familiar with each other and I anticipate the Memorial Day first round games to be great. I will update this thread as soon as the drawing has been completed and released on Thursday.

Dixie is another 1 seed. They defeated St  Henry in the rain tonight down at Meinken.

All the seeds have been confirmed but I still haven't seen if the drawing has happened. Here are the 1 and 2 seeds heading into the 9th Region:

1 seed: Beechwood, Dixie, Highlands, and Conner.

2 seed: Cov Cath, St. Henry, NCC, and Ryle.

Hopefully the drawing results are posted soon. 

I know I'm probably in the minority, but I just hate blind draws in anything - especially when there's a system in place used for rankings. 

I would much rather see this than having to watch a potential Ryle/Beechwood first round matchup:

Game 1 - #1 Beechwood vs. #8 St. Henry

Game 2 - #4 Covington Catholic vs. #5 Highlands

Game 3 - #3 Conner vs. #6 Dixie Heights

Game 4 - #2 Ryle vs. #7 Newport Central Catholic

Instead, we could see 1/2 in round 1 at 10:30 am on Monday in a matchup of two aces - Caleb Arrasmith (8-2, 2.28 ERA, sub 1 WHIP) vs Nik Carter (5-2, 3.37 ERA, 82 Ks in 45 IP).

That said, I get it...tradition/what we've always done/down with the RPI! Either way, will be a superb tournament to watch. Really looking forward to it. 

 

12 minutes ago, BrosefStalin said:

I know I'm probably in the minority, but I just hate blind draws in anything - especially when there's a system in place used for rankings. 

I would much rather see this than having to watch a potential Ryle/Beechwood first round matchup:

Game 1 - #1 Beechwood vs. #8 St. Henry

Game 2 - #4 Covington Catholic vs. #5 Highlands

Game 3 - #3 Conner vs. #6 Dixie Heights

Game 4 - #2 Ryle vs. #7 Newport Central Catholic

Instead, we could see 1/2 in round 1 at 10:30 am on Monday in a matchup of two aces - Caleb Arrasmith (8-2, 2.28 ERA, sub 1 WHIP) vs Nik Carter (5-2, 3.37 ERA, 82 Ks in 45 IP).

That said, I get it...tradition/what we've always done/down with the RPI! Either way, will be a superb tournament to watch. Really looking forward to it. 

 

It also gives more importance on the entire regular season and not just your District games. I feel like the regular season is just to get you ready for the post season push and it doesn't have any bearing on who you will play or if you lose now its no big deal. I think you should be required to play all the teams in your Region once through the year and then take the overall records from the regular season and sort it that way. I know you will have teams playing lighter schedules to get a higher seed but could be to their determent. 

Dixie v CovCath

Ryle v Highlands

Conner v St Henry

Beechwood v NCC

 

No way you could make every 9th region team play each other.  Not going to happen.  You could always do a super region and take out the district like Louisville does.  Regional tourneys are not total blind draws.  Win your district and get a district runner up. Ryle won their #1 seed in their district and had the advantage of resting their ace in opening round and still lost in final.  that's baseball.  Still drew opposite Beechwood.  Going to be an interesting 9th region Tourney.  Beechwood definitely the favorite though. 

On 5/22/2026 at 3:30 PM, changeup said:

No way you could make every 9th region team play each other.  Not going to happen.  You could always do a super region and take out the district like Louisville does.  Regional tourneys are not total blind draws.  Win your district and get a district runner up. Ryle won their #1 seed in their district and had the advantage of resting their ace in opening round and still lost in final.  that's baseball.  Still drew opposite Beechwood.  Going to be an interesting 9th region Tourney.  Beechwood definitely the favorite though. 

Super Region! I love that idea

All Highlands action can be found on bluebirdsradio.com ! I am thrilled to be back on the air calling these games from one of my favorite facilities in the area. First Highlands game is tomorrow at 1pm from Florence against Ryle. Of course, all action is free to listen to from WFTS bluebirdsradio! 

Should Highlands not make to the finals, and there is enough interest, I may also do the 9th region championship game regardless of the teams. I'll cross that bridge when we get to it. 

Headed to the 7th...still 0-0 in Dixie/Cov Cath. Been one heck of a pitchers dual between Kyle Flynn and Michael Bryson. 

3 H for Covington Catholic and 2 for Dixie. 

Two base runners on. One out in the bottom of the 7th for Dixie. New pitcher Nick Thompson has entered for Covington Catholic. 

The Dixie Heights Colonels walk it off! Who else but Kyle Flynn to give himself the win by getting the base knock to end it. 

The streak goes to 24 years of Covington Catholic not winning a region title in baseball.

Edited May 25May 25 by Brennan_Bucher

The ability of the Red Colonels to pick off base runners several times during the game IMHO was the difference in the game.  Cov Cath threatened to score 2 or 3 times and Dixe made the big play to snuff-out the threat.  Game was tense thru out.