Let the inning-by-inning blogging begin. (Shameless Twitter plug)

9TH INNING

Auburn 17, Southern Miss 8: We have a Caleb Bowen sighting. He replaced Ryan Jenkins after the Tigers failed to score. Southern Miss added a solo homer by Joey Archer. But that was all. Here's the quickie story. Auburn plays Clemson tonight. Needs a win to force another game on Monday.

8TH INNING

Auburn 17, Southern Miss 7: A two-run double by Trent Mummey extended the Tigers' lead. Mummey came out for a pinch runner. He finished 3-for-5 with a homer, two doubles and five RBIs. Southern Miss finally got to reliever Bradley Hendrix with an RBI single by B.A. Vollmuth. Vollmuth is a heck of a player, by the way. He's 3-for-5 with a homer and three RBIs today. He's 8-for-14 with two homers and eight RBIs in the regional.

7TH INNING

Auburn 15, Southern Miss 6: No runs again for Auburn. Kevin Patterson hit into a double play to end the inning. Looked like he might have beat it out, but it's a nine-run game with three innings left. Anything to speed the rest of the game up is OK by me. Two baserunners but no runs for Southern Miss. Bradley Hendrix is up to 4 1/3 scoreless innings.

6TH INNING

Auburn 15, Southern Miss 6: That was the Tigers' first inning without a run. Trent Mummey hit a two-out double down the right field line and trotted into second. It still looks like that quad is bothering him. Bradley Hendrix threw another scoreless inning for Auburn. He's gone 3 1/3 so far. No runs.

5TH INNING

Auburn 15, Southern Miss 6: The Tigers finally built some distance between them and the Golden Eagles with a six-run inning. Three straight walks loaded the bases before Justin Fradejas ripped a two-run single up the middle. Trent Mummey followed by flicking a ball into the right field stands for a three-run homer. It honestly looked like he barely hit it. Auburn scored one more on an error by the second baseman. Southern Miss looks like it's about out of pitchers. Bradley Hendrix got out of a jam for Auburn with an inning-ending double play. He's pitched 2 1/3 innings. You figure John Pawlowski will ride him to the finish of this game to save whatever arms the Tigers have left for Clemson tonight.

4TH INNING

Auburn 9, Southern Miss 6: Hunter Morris changed the game with one swing, ripping a no-doubt-about-it grand slam to right off Southern Miss reliever Jay Myrick. With runners on second and third, Brian Fletcher worked a walk on a full count. Morris followed with the homer, his 23rd this season. That set a single-season Auburn record. Bradley Hendrix followed with a quick inning, getting B.A. Vollmuth to hit into a double play. Couple of nice defensive plays by shortstop Casey McElroy.

3RD INNING

Southern Miss 6, Auburn 5: The Tigers got one back, all with two outs. Hunter Morris beat out an infield single. Ryan Jenkins followed with a single before Kevin Patterson drove a double to center that scored Morris. Jenkins looked like he would have scored too, but he slipped going around third and had to go back. It cost the Tigers a run after Justin Bryant struck out to end the inning. Cole Nelson almost pitched out a leadoff double, but left a pitch up on a 1-2 count with two outs that Tyler Graves grounded to left for an RBI single. Nelson gave up a double after that to end his day. He gave up six runs on eight hits in 2 2/3 innings. Bradley Hendrix came in and stranded runners at second and third.

2ND INNING

Southern Miss 5, Auburn 4: We're going to guess that you'll need a minimum of 15 runs to win this ballgame. Casey McElroy got Auburn back within one on a three-run homer off the scoreboard in center. It's McElroy's eighth home run this season. We've had nine outs, nine runs, eight hits and three home runs so far. Cole Nelson came back out for Auburn and pitches around a two-out single.

1ST INNING

Southern Miss 5, Auburn 1: The Tigers looked like they'd go down quietly in the first after two straight ground outs, but Brian Fletcher got them on the board with a solo homer to left. It was his 21st of the year. It was Auburn's first hit in the first three innings of any game in the regional. The lead didn't last. Cole Nelson left a pitch up in the zone that B.A. Vollmuth hit out to the opposite field in right for a two-run homer. It was Vollmuth's 20th this season. Travis Graves makes things worse, clearing the bases with a two-out, three-run double. Nelson gave up four hits and walked two in the first. He threw 29 pitches. The first inning seems to haunt Auburn pitchers in this regional. Bradley Hendrix and Jon Luke Jacobs have already gone to the 'pen for the Tigers.

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It's bright and sunny at Plainsman Park today. A perfect day to (possibly) watch a couple of baseball games. Here are the lineups. Auburn shook things up a little bit. Remember, the Tigers are road team in this game. Stats are AVG-HR-RBI:

NO. 1 AUBURN (41-20)

CF Trent Mummey (.360-15-48)
3B Dan Gamache (.377-8-36)
LF Brian Fletcher (.353-20-71)
1B Hunter Morris (.387-22-71)
C Ryan Jenkins (355-7-38)
DH Kevin Patterson (.304-16-31)
2B Justin Bryant (.310-5-29)
SS Casey McElroy (.316-7-38)
RF Justin Fradejas (.350-2-28)

LHP Cole Nelson (6-3, 5.07)

What's different? Well, Bryant is starting for Justin Hargett at second base. Fradejas is hitting ninth instead of leadoff. Mummey is the leadoff hitter and Gamache moved up from sixth to second.

Why the change? Auburn has batted .233 since clinching the SEC West, scoring only 22 runs in the last five games.

Although Nelson's been erratic this year, he's been pretty good at home. The lefty is 5-2 with a 2.27 ERA in nine appearances at Plainsman Park, eight of which were starts. And that includes a start against LSU in which he didn't record and out and gave up six runs.

NO. 3 SOUTHERN MISS (35-23)

LF Kameron Brunty (.302-9-37)
2B Taylor Walker (.369-8-57)
SS B.A. Vollmuth (.381-19-73)
DH Adam Doleac (.361-7-57)
3B Joey Archer (.294-6-38)
CF Dillon Day (.356-1-33)
1B Mark Ellis (.303-7-41)
C Travis Graves (.287-4-30)
RF Tyler Koelling (.331-4-39)

RHP Geoffrey Thomas (1-5, 7.57 ERA)

How have the other top seeds in the regionals fared, you ask? We're happy to oblige.

No. 1 seeds that won their first two games: Arizona State, Arkansas, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, TCU, Florida State, Louisville, UCLA, Miami and Florida.

Who has to work their way through the losers bracket: Auburn, Coastal Carolina and Cal State Fullerton.

The SEC went 8-0 on the first day. It went 3-5 yesterday. South Carolina, Arkansas and Florida advanced. Auburn, Vanderbilt, LSU, Ole Miss and Alabama lost.

One last nugget: Auburn's wearing orange jerseys today with gray pants as the road team. Southern Miss has white on right now. I figured it would wear the golds. Maybe the Golden Eagles will switch before the game starts.

We'll be back with inning-by-inning updates, so check back periodically. Also, follow the blog on Twitter for updates every time somebody scores.