After a first day in which favorites prevailed at Plainsman Park — although the host Tigers might have cut it a little close for their comfort — No. 14 Auburn and No. 20 Clemson meet tonight for a berth in Sunday’s region final.

Auburn coach John Pawlowski, who said he watched “about half” of Clemson’s 10-1 win over Southern Miss before his Tigers’ 9-7 win over Jacksonville State, didn’t expect anything less.

“A team that played very well in all phases,” Pawloswki said of the visiting Tigers. “That’s what championship baseball’s all about. It’s about tough challenges, tough teams.

“And that’s what we’ve got on our hands tomorrow.”

The No. 14 Tigers (41-19) and the No. 20 Tigers (39-21) also showed on the first day of the regional that they are teams that fit pretty well into each other’s strengths.

Auburn can rake, and Justin Fradejas, Dan Gamache and Casey McElroy put more distance between this year’s team and the previous school home run record Friday by bringing the season total to 120.

But the Tigers also love to bunt the ball, which is no secret at this point in the season, as its 57 sacrifice bunts attest.

The Tigers hammered home that point against the Gamecocks, with Justin Fradejas and Justin Hargett each tallying bunt singles, and Fradejas
laying down a sacrifice that turned into a two-base error by Jacksonville State pitcher Alex Jones.

Those two innings that started in bunts led to five of Auburn’s runs.

“It came down to some short things, some little things,” Pawlowski said. “I thought we did a really good job with the short game.”

Clemson, from the looks of its Friday win, has just the thing for that. Namely, third baseman John Hinson.

Hinson spearheaded a solid defensive effort all around by the Tigers, leading the team with four assists that all came on fairly tough chances.

“We did play really good defensively,” Clemson coach Jack Leggett said. “That’s always a great place to start.”

The Tigers also got some stellar pitching from Scott Weismann, who gave up a run on four hits and struck out six in his longest outing since April 17 against Georgia Tech.

That sets them up to throw Casey Harman today, a junior with a 6-2 record, a 4.14 ERA and 78 strikeouts in 91 1/3 innings.

And, which should be music to the ears of Auburn hitters, he’s a left-hander. The Tigers are 18-0 against lefty starters this season.

Again, strength versus strength.

Auburn is throwing its own left-hander, junior Grant Dayton, which could set it up well against a Clemson lineup that featured six lefties on Friday.

But the Tigers were fairly equal opportunity about who they were beating around on the Golden Eagles’ staff: they touched up righty Scott
Copeland for seven runs on nine hits in 5 1/3 innings, then greeted lefty reliever Cody Schlagel with two hits and a walk without him recording an out in a six-run sixth.

Clemson was also opportunistic against the Golden Eagles, going 4-for-10 with six RBI with runners in scoring position.

The Tigers are going to need to keep that up against Dayton, who was 7-1 with a 3.64 ERA in SEC play and the tournament, to make an easier road.

“We need to play an equally good ballgame (today),” Leggett said. “Because it won’t get any easier from here.”

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