Starting with Friday’s opener and ending with its potential matchup in the championship game, the Auburn baseball team has plenty of familiarity with the three teams it will host in this weekend’s NCAA regional at Plainsman Park.

The two-seed, Clemson, is John Pawlowski’s alma mater, was his first coaching stop and then a longtime rival when he served as the coach at College of Charleston.

The four-seed and Auburn’s first opponent Friday at 6 p.m., Jacksonville State, was Auburn’s final non-conference opponent of the regular season and didn’t lay down.

Southern Miss, the three-seed, rounds out the field. The Golden Eagles were a College World Series team last season.

“You look at the teams across the country and certainly our regional, it’s going to be tough,“ Pawlowski said. “That’s what this time of year is all about.”

Auburn’s road to a Super Regional starts with the Gamecocks, but it will likely have to end against Clemson, a perennial college baseball power that Pawlowski certainly doesn’t need a map to find.

Pawlowski began his career at Clemson, pitching from 1983-85 under coach Jack Leggett, who is still the coach. After nearly nine years of bouncing around the Minor and Major Leagues with three different teams, Pawlowski returned to Clemson to earn his degree and launch his coaching career first as a graduate assistant, and then as the team’s pitching coach and recruiting coordinator from 1994-98.

As the head coach at College of Charleston from 2000-2008, Pawlowski teamed up with Leggett to schedule a number of non-conference games between the schools.
Pawlowski has yet to get the best of him.

“They’ve got a great program and rightfully so. Coach Leggett’s done a great job there,” Pawlowski said. “Coach Leggett gave me my first opportunity to coach in college baseball and I certainly can’t say enough about that.”

This year’s Clemson is 38-21 heading into the regional, winning just one of its three games at the ACC Tournament, which has a round-robin format. It has made the NCAA Tournament in 23 of the past 24years and has advanced to the College World Series 11 times. When Auburn last hosted a regional in 2003, Clemson was the three-seed, going 1-2 with a win over Princeton and losses to Ohio State and Auburn.

“When it comes down to it, we know our guys have to play well regardless of who we play,” Pawlowski said. “It’s certainly a great regional.”

Auburn has fresh memories to realize that not even the Gamecocks, who won the Ohio Valley Conference tournament Sunday, are a team they can overlook.

Jacksonville State (32-24) rallied from a 4-0 deficit to tie the score, 7-7, in the eighth inning of the teams’ meeting May 18 at Plainsman Park, the Tigers’ final tune-up before their SEC West-clinching sweep at Ole Miss. Tony Caldwell’s game-winning single in the bottom half of the inning proved to be the difference, but a message was sent.

“They gave us a heck of a ballgame there at the end of the season,” first baseman Hunter Morris said. “They’ve got some very good players on that team and we expect nothing different this week. It’s very important now that we come out ready to play. It doesn’t matter who you play from here on out, it’s going to be a tough ballgame.”

Southern Miss (35-22) brings big-game experience into Plainsman Park, as the Golden Eagles made a surprise run to last year’s College World Series. Arguably one of the best three-seeds in the tournament, No. 27 Southern Miss won the Conference USA tournament Sunday with a 7-4 victory over C-USA regular-season champion Rice to earn its eighth consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament.

“They’ve played extremely well,” Pawlowski said. “Definitely a dangerous, dangerous team.”

Clemson and Southern Miss will open the regional Friday at 2 p.m. The winners of Friday’s games will play at 6 p.m. Saturday while the losers will square off in an elimination game at 2 p.m.

Friends, family and fans crowded Loco’s Deli and Pub in Auburn on Monday morning to watch the NCAA Tournament selection show. The Tigers are hoping to see the same type of turnout Friday.

“There’s absolutely no disadvantage to being here at home, playing at Auburn in front of your own fans, your own field, sleeping in your own bed,” Morris said. “No matter who they paired us with, no matter who the other three teams were, we were going to go about our business the same way and come out here ready to win this weekend.”

Tickets for the regional can be purchased online at autigertickets.com or at the Auburn ticket office, which will open today at 8 a.m.

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