Auburn coach Tina Deese said she loves everything about the softball facilities at Ole Miss, where the SEC Tournament will be held starting Thursday.

Well, almost everything.

“The fences are short,” Deese said. “It’s going to be tough with Florida hitting as well as they are.”

The last thing No. 23 Auburn (38-16, 15-13 SEC) needs in its first-round matchup against No. 3 Florida (47-8, 21-7) — Thursday at 1:30 p.m., televised on ESPNU — is more offensive help for the Gators.

Florida ranks second in the SEC in batting average, first in runs and leads the nation with 1.89 home runs per game.

The Tigers experienced all that power up close and personal in a three-game Florida sweep at Jane B. Moore Field on April 16 and 17, one in which the visitors slugged 15 home runs — including a school-record eight in a 13-4 win — and outscored Auburn, 35-10.

“We did everything we could,” Deese said. “What Florida did to us was they were extremely disciplined. They knew the zone, they worked the zone and when they squared up, they squared up.

“They crushed it.”

Junior Angel Bunner had the most success against the Gators’ sticks the last time out, and she still gave up nine runs, 15 hits and two home runs in eight innings.

Bunner, who leads the Tigers with a 15-6 record and a 1.60 ERA on the year, said the team hasn’t forgotten about the shellacking it took.

“It makes me want to go out and play them more,” Bunner said. “It makes me want to prove something to them. They’re a good team, but in the past couple weeks we’ve come a long way.

“We’ve gained a lot more confidence. It puts more of a fight to it now.”

Auburn closed the regular season on the upswing, taking series from then-No. 4 Georgia — its first series win over a top-five team in school history — and then-No. 18 Kentucky to finish with its first winning record in conference play since 2005.

The trio of Bunner, Jenee Loree and Lauren Schmalz helped set the tone in the circle, while players such as Kelley Smiley, Kelsey Cartwright, Elizabeth Eisterhold and Katie Colton came up with clutch hits at the plate.

“Our team is probably playing as well as we’ve played all year,” Deese said. “We hope to continue that. We’ve got a good, strong opponent in Florida, and we understand that.

“We’re just going to give them our best shot.”

Florida has dispatched the Tigers in the first round of each of the past two SEC tournaments, but Auburn still had an impressive enough resume to make an NCAA regional.

That looks to be the case again this year. The SEC is so strong that the Tigers, the No. 7-seed in the conference tournament, rank No. 29 nationally in RPI.

But that won’t stop Auburn from trying for its first SEC Tournament win in six years.

“The tournament’s for pride,” junior shortstop Lauren Guzman said. “It’s another chance to work out on things we might need to work on.”

The winner of the Auburn-Florida game takes on the winner of Kentucky-Tennessee on Friday at 2 p.m.

The Tigers find out their NCAA Tournament fate Sunday.

They hope to still be riding this string of late-season success when they do.

“We’re not going into (the SEC Tournament) thinking, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to win these games or we’re not going to the NCAAs,’” Bunner said. “But, of course, we’re going into it hoping to win.

“We have a lot to prove to everyone. We’ve come a long way this year, and there’s still stuff to be proven.”