STARKVILLE — Southeast Missouri State will attempt to play a professional type of game today when the Starkville Regional opens at Dudy Noble Field.
Four-seeded Southeast Missouri (39-19) takes on top-seeded Mississippi State (41-16-1) at 1:30 p.m. to open the four-team, double-elimination event. Second-seeded Cal State Fullerton (35-16) faces third-seeded Louisiana Tech (40-18) at 6:30 p.m. in the other opening-round game.
The Starkville Regional winner plays the Lafayette Regional winner next weekend for a trip to the College World Series.
Southeast Missouri sixth-year coach Steve Bieser has an idea of what to expect when facing the No. 6 national seed based on earlier experiences against the Southeastern Conference. The Redhawks lost two games to SEC foe Ole Miss and split two games with SEC foe Missouri during the regular season.
“Over the last few years we’ve made sure that we have some SEC teams on our schedule each year,” Bieser said. “It’s a great conference, a tough one to play in and it holds a lot of talent. To me it is more of a professional style game and that’s something you don’t see in the (Ohio Valley Conference). It’s more of a swing it, hit your doubles and score a lot of runs and not so much small ball.”
Southeast Missouri won the OVC regular-season title by one game over Austin Peay. In the league’s postseason tournament, the Redhawks won four of five games played, battling back from the losers’ bracket to defeat Jacksonville State twice to win the tournament. The Redhawks scored 10 or more runs in their final three tournament games.
“If you look at our numbers our team is one that really looks to drive balls,” Bieser said. “We are looking for pitches out over a plate we can do damage with. We are more of an extra-base hit type of club. We also have those guys that can manufacture runs in the small game when we need to, and I think that is one thing that can help us in this regional. Not as many extra-base hits are going to be given out against quality pitching and we know that. Really from an offensive standpoint we find ways to score other than just hitting the ball over the wall or driving those gaps.
“The one thing about our offense is over the past few years they’ve been able to adjust for the most part to where we are playing and who we are playing and that is something that has made our offense pretty good.”
As a team, Southeast Missouri is hitting .310 with 59 home runs. By comparison, MSU is hitting .312 with 42 home runs. Neither team has confirmed a starting pitcher today but Bieser knows the SEC regular-season champions will be a handful, especially playing at home in front of an estimated 10.000 fans.
“We know what we are up against,” Bieser said. “It’s great baseball. You just can’t make mistakes and that is something we have been working on all season. We’ve got some guys that have gone out of position this year and we have corrected those problems and we know we just have to play a clean game.”
The availability of ace Joey Lucchesi is expected to be a game-time decision. A senior left-hander, Lucchesi (10-4, 1.87) awoke with stiffness Thursday morning. In the OVC tournament, Lucchesi appeared in the tournament opener — a seven-hit 3-0 shutout of Morehead State — before returning to throw three innings in relief against Jacksonville State in the title clincher. In the tournament, he threw 154 pitches.
“I think he has come a long way since last year,” Bieser said. “What we have seen from Joey is that his fastball spiked up and he’s had a velocity and that has opened up some running pitches. His changeup can be used to get a guy on his front foot or it can be used as a put away pitch and he can bury it and it has late action to it. That is something he’s able to use in a couple different ways and that presents a lot of problems for hitters.”
If Lucchesi can’t go, junior right-hander Clay Chandler (4-5, 3.91) is expected to get the start.
“All season long Clay Chandler has been our number two pitcher in that Saturday slot and Clay is ready,” Bieser said. “He pitched out of the bullpen for us in the conference tournament and he didn’t get a start there either. He has kind of been chomping at the bit to go so I think we have a couple good options there.”
Southeast Missouri is playing in its third regional and first since the 2002 Tuscaloosa Regional.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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