There’s little to no time left for Auburn to get cute and tinker with its lineup heading into tonight’s matchup with Ole Miss left-hander Drew Pomeranz.

The Tigers need to win now, and they’re going to go down swinging with their best batters in the best spots — no matter who is on the mound.

“We’re just going to put our best hitters up there,” coach John Pawlowski said. “Lefty, righty, whatever and just let them find themselves.”

The Tigers boast just two right-handed bats in their slugger-happy lineup with catcher Tony Caldwell and outfielder Brian Fletcher. That’s down one big right-handed bat from just a few weeks ago, before third baseman Joseph Sanders went down with a broken jaw.

Sanders is out for the foreseeable future, as he continues to recover from surgery.

The impulsive decision could prompt Pawlowski to shuffle up the order and throw in some extra right-handers to balance it out — just for the sake of coaching. But the games are too important now, Pawlowski said.

If you haven’t been hitting recently, you won’t be hitting now.

“As the games get dwindling down, the opportunities start to diminish,” Pawlowski said. “Obviously, this is a huge weekend, not only for us, but there are nine conference games left to play. A lot of the moving and seeding yet to be had.”

If the SEC Tournament began today, Auburn wouldn’t be invited for the sixth consecutive season. The Tigers (27-19, 8-13) sit one game behind South Carolina for the eighth-and-final tournament slot. The Gamecocks own the tiebreaker over Auburn because of their series victory two weeks ago, so it’s theoretically a two-game lead.

South Carolina (27-18, 9-12) hosts Vanderbilt (27-17, 10-10) this weekend.

It’s all the more reason to forget that a baseball season is a marathon. It will come down to the final sprint for Auburn to snap the skid, as all 12 teams are still mathematically eligible to qualify.

“That speaks volumes for this league,” Pawlowski said.

Though the Tigers come into today’s start to a three-game series with the Rebels losing their past four SEC games, Auburn is somewhat hot after two blowout victories over Troy. The Tigers scored 26 and 13 runs, respectively, in the feel-good wins, as most were manufactured with sharp singles and doubles as opposed to home runs — a major sign of progress for the home run reliant Tigers.

“I think it was very important for our team and very important to our confidence going into this weekend,” Pawlowski said.

The Tigers will once again roll out their new-look starting rotation this weekend, as freshman Jon Luke Jacobs will start today, lefthander Grant Dayton will go Saturday and freshman Dexter Price will start Sunday.

Before last weekend’s series at LSU, Dayton held down the Friday slot, but Pawlowski said he likes having his most consistent starter not face an opponent’s best arm every single game.

Plus Jacobs’ “soft stuff” on a Friday can throw a team for a loop, Pawlowski said.

“I think pitching backwards certainly gave us a chance last weekend,” Pawlowski said. “Obviously, we didn’t come away with the wins, but it certainly gave us a chance.”

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