05/24 at 09:45 PM

Just one more win against the last-place team in the SEC and Auburn would be the No. 2 seed at the SEC Tournament for the second year in a row, preparing for a morning date with rival Alabama, a team the Tigers beat three of four times during the course of the season.

Instead, Auburn is No. 8 and setting up for a 4:30 p.m. date with top seed South Carolina, the reigning College World Series champion that swept the Tigers earlier this year.

“Being the underdogs and coming out, we have something to prove,” senior catcher Tony Caldwell said. “It was a tough weekend for us (at Tennessee) but we are going to bounce back and hopefully get some wins.”

Auburn (29-27) enters the tournament needing only one win to assure a win-loss percentage better than .500 and – in all likelihood – a spot in an NCAA Regional.

But the draw is not doing them any favors.

First come the No. 1 Gamecocks (44-12), who are 10-3 against the Tigers in the past four years.

If Auburn can knock off South Carolina, it removes a bunch of the drama.

If not, either No. 2 Vanderbilt (44-9) or 5-seed Georgia (28-28) awaits in the second game.

The Commodores swept Auburn this year, and the Tigers took two of three from the Bulldogs.

But Georgia, like Auburn, will be playing for its NCAA life, needing three wins at the SEC Tournament to clear .500.

“At this point in the year, you’ve got to come out and leave it all on the field,” junior pitcher Jon Luke Jacobs said. “Not that we haven’t all year, but especially now. There’s a high sense of urgency.

“It might be your last game of the year. You never know.”

Jacobs (1-4, 3.59 ERA) will take the hill for the Tigers against South Carolina.

The junior struggled in his last start, giving up three runs in the first before settling down and going 5 1/3 innings in a 5-2 loss to Tennessee, but he held the Gamecocks in check earlier this year.

Jacobs went eight innings, giving up a run on five hits while striking out nine and walking five in a 2-1 Auburn loss on April 29.

“He’s been out there, he’s been in big situations,” head coach John Pawlowski said of Jacobs. “Certainly a pitcher that we want to go Game 1 in the SEC Tournament. He knows what he has to do and he’s certainly capable of doing it.”

Jacobs couldn’t have drawn a much more difficult opponent for the opener than South Carolina’s Michael Roth.

Roth, a 6-foot-1, 210-pound junior leads the conference in ERA (1.28), is second in wins (10) and third in strikeouts (87).

The first-team All-SEC honoree held serve with Jacobs in April, giving up a run on seven hits in eight innings with six strikeouts and a walk.

The pitching matchups take on even more importance at Hoover’s spacious Regions Park.

Especially with less lively bats this year.

“The wind was blowing out, and (the ball) still wasn’t going out,” Caldwell said after Tuesday’s batting practice. “But we’re not going to be trying to hit home runs. All the small game is going to come into play. The long ball is pretty much gone.”

This is Auburn’s second straight trip to the conference tournament after missing it for six years prior.

Last year’s team went 1-2 with an NCAA spot assured and only possible seeding ramifications.

This year’s team needs to at least duplicate that success, or that season’s over.

“We are trying not to put the pressure on us,” junior shortstop Casey McElroy said. “We know that we need at least one win to be Regional eligible, but that’s in the back of our minds and I think we are going to settle down and play our game.

“We know what we have to do.”