Auburn’s players have said all year that they rise to the occasion when their backs are against the wall.

They’ll have to prove that today after Saturday night’s ugly, 5-2 loss to Clemson in front of another capacity crowd at Plainsman Park.

Clemson advances to Sunday’s championship game while Auburn will have to beat Southern Miss at 1 p.m. today just to earn a rematch with the perennial ACC power. In order to advance to the Super Regionals, where it would face the winner of the Georgia Tech regional, Auburn will have to beat the Golden Eagles once and Clemson twice in a row.

“It’s been done before,” Auburn coach John Pawlowski said. “We still have life. We need to be ready to play.”

Pawlowski said he hadn’t even thought of who he’d throw at Southern Miss, which had an easy time eliminating Jacksonville State on Saturday, 19-6.

It probably won’t matter. Auburn’s bats will have to wake up out of their relative slumber if it expects to make a now-improbable run to the Super Regionals.

“It may come down to an offensive battle these next couple of games,” first baseman Hunter Morris said. “We’ve been through that before. We’ve had to score runs all season.”

Clemson’s Casey Harman went the distance and kept Auburn’s strong lineup off the bases, no-hitting it through the first four innings before Tony Caldwell’s solo home run in the fifth eliminated his bid for both a no-hitter and a shutout.

By then, he was staked to a hefty lead, as Clemson’s bats knocked around Grant Dayton for five runs over 7 2/3 innings.

Two batters into the game, Clemson second baseman Mike Freeman golfed a two-run home run over the right-field fence. John Hinson rapped an RBI single on Dayton’s 33rd pitch of the inning to stake Harman to an early, 3-0 lead.

Clemson added two more runs in the fourth when Richie Shaffer and Wilson Boyd rapped back-to-back doubles before Dan Gamache’s throwing error allowed another run to cross. Gamache made a nice stop on Will Lamb’s sharp grounder, but bounced the throw past Morris, allowing Boyd to score from second.

It marked the second consecutive night Auburn trailed past the third inning, not exactly a frequent occurrence throughout its 41-win season.

“You never want to choose to play from behind,” Morris said. “It’s nice to have some momentum, it’s nice to have a lead but we’ve played from behind before. It’s not impossible.”

Harman became the first opposing left-handed starter to lead his team to a victory at Plainsman Park all season, striking out eight and inducing a bevy of towering pop-ups. The Tigers were previously 16-0 at home against southpaw starters. He’s just the fourth pitcher this season to keep Auburn under three runs.

“When you get into championship play and regionals, that’s what it’s about,” Pawlowski said. “He did exactly that.”

Morris tagged Harman for a solo home run in the ninth inning and Caldwell followed with a single, but he clamped down by forcing Gamache to ground into a double play and Ryan Jenkins to fly out.

It wasn’t the first time Harman worked his way out of trouble.

Auburn threatened in the sixth inning, but it ended in demoralizing fashion. With two outs and Justin Fradejas on first, Brian Fletcher sent a deep drive to right-center field, but was robbed of a home run on a leaping catch by Boyd.

In the eighth, a reversed call ruled in Auburn’s favor awoke the capacity crowd and sent Clemson coach Jack Leggett into an irate tizzy. It just didn’t result in any runs.

With a runner on first, Fradejas took a pitch that appeared to hit his hand and jogged to first base. Home plate umpire Randy Bruns originally ruled that it hit Fradejas’ bat, but after an earful from Auburn coach John Pawlowski and further inspection of Fradejas’ apparently bruised hand, he ruled it in Auburn’s favor. Leggett took his turn laying into Bruns but it was to no avail. Trent Mummey and Fletcher both struck out to end the threat.

“They made the plays,” Pawlowski said. “They did what they needed to do, not only to keep momentum, but to win the ballgame.”

Dayton recovered from his rough start nicely, retiring the final 12 batters he faced and striking out nine. Dayton threw 38 pitches in the first inning and finished with a career-high 130, allowing Auburn to have a largely fresh bullpen for today’s game(s).

The typically comfortable run support just wasn’t there on this night, though, and Auburn is now in the position it’s thrived in all year.

Only this time, a loss will close the book on Auburn’s season.

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