Here are four storylines to follow at the state summer baseball tournament Friday

The WIAA summer baseball state tournament is set to take place Friday at Kapco Park in Mequon with four teams vying for the final summer title before all schools compete in the spring beginning next year. 

Play begins at 11:35 a.m. with Menomonee Falls and Pius XI in the first semifinal. Muskego and Plymouth will face off in the second semifinal with the championship slated for 6:05 p.m.

RELATED:Power ranking the last 20 years of WIAA state summer baseball championship games

Here are four storylines -- one for each team at state -- to keep an eye on as play begins. 

Continuing a dynasty?

Menomonee Falls enters the tournament with a chance to do what only one summer team has accomplished before: win three championships in four years. 

The Indians won it all in 2015 and 2016 under current head coach Pat Hansen. There are some similarities between the two championship Falls teams and this year's squad, as well. The Indians did not win the Greater Metro Conference in either championship season, nor did they come away with the conference crown this year. Falls finished 15-6 in GMC play in both '15 and '16. This year, it went 14-6.

While Ty Weber was the star on the Indians' two previous state teams, this year's bunch is a group without that one standout player but full of solid contributors. 

Plymouth's pitching order

Plymouth senior Holden Reilly enters in alongside Pius' Sam Treffert and TJ Driver for the title of best regular-season starting pitcher in the state tournament, so it may be worth watching to see just how the Panthers use him. 

Reilly is undefeated, going 12-0 with a 0.89 ERA and 72 strikeouts in 62 2/3 innings of work. Any time your ace pitcher has given up only eight earned runs and 10 overall coming into state, your team has a chance to go far. 

In the sectional tournament, Plymouth started sophomore Aiden Reilly in the final with Holden going in the semifinal. In the two-games-in-one-day format, teams often will throw their top pitcher in the first game to give themselves a better chance at reaching the final. The Panthers could do that again with the elder Reilly, going for a win over Muskego, and then going with a series of reliable arms in Aiden Reilly, Jack Nytes, Joe Steinhardt and Ben Picard later on. 

Or, perhaps, Plymouth opts to save its ace for either Falls or Pius -- the two higher-ranked teams at state -- if they reach the championship. 

More close calls for Pius?

For practically the entire regular season, Pius dominated its opponents. 

En route to a 26-3 record and Woodland Conference regular-season and conference tournament titles, the Popes outscored opponents by 133 runs with an average of 7.4 runs per game to just 2.8 allowed.

Pius' three playoff victories, however, have all come by one run, including a comeback, extra-inning win over Kettle Moraine in the sectional final. 

It's almost a lock that the Popes will tag Driver and Treffert as their starting pitchers after posting regular seasons with ERAs of 0.19 and 0.56, respectively. The pair walked only 17 batters in a combined 86 1/3 innings while striking out 92.

So, the question is: How much more magic do the Popes have in them? Or will they come and dominate at state like they have for much of the season? 

Still searching

Only one of the four teams has yet to win a state baseball title: Muskego. The Warriors also have reached only one championship game, losing on a walk-off home run in extra innings to West Bend East in 2002. 

This year's team may be the underdog on paper, but it has a chance to set school history. 

After a hot start, going 8-1 to open the season, Muskego hit a road bump for much of the rest of the regular season. The Warriors ended up above .500 in Classic 8 Conference play at 11-9, but dropped 11 of the final 20 games before playoffs started. 

They seem to have now hit their stride offensively, however, scoring 28 runs in three playoff wins over Whitnall, Greendale and Oak Creek.