The top-seeded and No. 4 Mississippi State baseball team (41-16-1) will play Southeast Missouri State (39-19) at 1:30 p.m. Friday (ESPN3) in the first game of the Starkville Regional at Dudy Noble Field.

Second-seeded and No. 21 Cal State Fullerton (35-21) will play third-seeded Louisiana Tech (40-18) at 6:30 Friday night (ESPN3) to complete the first day of action in the double-elimination event.

Here are the thoughts of D1Baseball.com’s Kendall Rogers about the Starkville Regional and its teams:

CD: How tough is the Starkville Regional?

KR: “I think it’s pretty tough. SEMO was a team for much of the year before they got to the conference tournament, actually had a chance to get in as an at-large team. The fact that you have them as a four seed, that’s a good team. They’ve got a really solid ace. … Cal State Fullerton’s a club that not a lot of people are talking about. This was a team that was in Omaha last year. They won’t be remotely scared of being in a big atmosphere, probably more so embrace it. They’re a team with a lot of pitching depth. You look at Colton Eastman, John Gavin, Dylan Prohoroff, he’s a big time arm. He’s a 90, 93, 94 (mph) guy with big-time stuff and a top six, seven rounder. They have a lot of pitching depth. The question I have with Fullerton is kind of how they stack up offensively in that regional. They’re not a great offensive club. With Louisiana Tech, they’re dangerous because they just don’t have anything to lose. It’s a team that coming into the year was picked to finish near the bottom of the conference and they’re in a regional. It’s been a heck of a year for (coach) Greg Goff and his team. Chase Lunceford’s a really good hitter and they can really hit at the top of that lineup. It’s kind of a dangerous regional because you’ve got three teams who don’t have a lot to lose.”

CD: Where does it rank in terms of pitching?

KR: “I think Oxford, for instance, probably has better pitching. The thing about this regional, Fullerton and Mississippi State have pretty good pitching. Louisiana Tech not so much and SEMO, as is the case in most four seeds, they’re probably going to be in a situation to where they’re probably going to run out of depth for a couple of days.”

CD: Where does it rank in terms of offense?

KR: “It ranks pretty well. You look at Louisiana Tech and what Mississippi State has done down the stretch, it’s been pretty impressive. I think these are two teams that are very hot offensively. SEMO has some guys, even Cal State Fullerton. Their numbers don’t jump out at you, but guys like Timmy Richards and Tanner Pinkston, assuming he comes back from injury this weekend. I’m not sure that’s going to happen. Guys like that are quality hitters as well.”

CD: What problems can SEMO cause MSU?

KR: “This is a team that’s won a lot of games. This is a team that’s experienced a lot of success. I think it’s one of those situations where I don’t think they’re going to get flustered. The thing I like about them is they’ve been ultra consistent. The other thing I like about them is they’ve got a stud ace. You look at Joey Lucchesi, a guy that’s thrown over 105 innings and had 145 strikeouts. That tells me he’s got swing-and-miss stuff. When you have a guy like that on the front end, that makes things pretty interesting. What will be very interesting for me is if (MSU coach John) Cohen doesn’t go with Dakota Hudson in the first game. With a pitcher like SEMO’s going to trot out there, it wouldn’t shock me that much if they did that.”

CD: What’s one thing that stands out about Cal State Fullerton?

KR: “Pitching. You look at Chad Hockin on the back end, he’s got a huge arm. They’ve got solid starting pitching and they’ve got a lot of bullpen depth, something a lot of teams that are two and three seeds generally don’t have. This is a team that went to Louisville last year and won a regional, that’s impressive. They’ve got a lot of experience in this situation.”

CD: What’s one thing that stands out about Louisiana Tech?

KR: “What they’ve been doing offensively lately. Every time I open up a boxscore Chase Lunceford’s name comes up. I think those guys, what they’ve done offensively against good pitching, they really kind of batted around Rice’s pitching staff a couple of weeks ago. They hit pretty well in the conference tournament. What they’ve done offensively is impressive because this is a team that halfway through the season didn’t have amazing offensive numbers. They’re hitting it at a pretty solid clip.”

CD: Who is one player from each team to keep an eye on?

KR: “For Louisiana Tech, Lunceford’s the guy. He can hit with consistency, he can hit with some power, and he’s the kind of the guy that makes them go a little bit. I think for Fullerton you’ve got to look at Tanner Pinkston if he’s able to play. I think the other guy is Dalton Blaser, who was kind of a terror at the plate in conference play hitting well over .400. I think for SEMO, it’s all about the starting pitching. You look at Lucchesi, that’s the guy for them. If they’re going to make any kind of noise in this thing, then they’ve got to win the first game. If they don’t win that, they’re obviously not going to make any noise. He’s the only guy that matters.”

CD: Outside of MSU, what team has the best chance to make it out?

KR: “In the bracket I went with a little upset, Louisiana Tech. I think if you were going to bet money on it, you would have to go with Fullerton with their pitching depth. Their pitching depth and their experience to me, would probably be the runner-up.”

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Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.