AMERICUS — The Americus-Sumter Panthers know they’re the underdogs against two-time AAAA champion Greenbrier on Friday.

But pressure hasn’t been something the Panthers have been under this season. Opponents may have overlooked the Panthers at times — just ask Thomas County Central — and coach Kagan McClain said that’s just been added motivation.

“The kids are excited about playing the defending state champs,” he said. “We’ve won more region games this year than we’ve ever won. We beat TCC twice for the first time ever, and we’ve competed in every region game and had a chance to win nearly all of them. We’re just tightening up loose ends.”

The Panthers (6-19) were in the running for the second seed in 1-AAAA through the last day. But two losses to TCC gave Americus-Sumter its chance to play the Wolfpack (20-6), which has one of the best pitchers in the state in Nolan Belcher. Greenbrier also has a solid No. 2, which could be an ace on many other teams in Pat McGowan.

Americus-Sumter will counter Caleb Cochran, David Parks and Tyler Daniel. Opposing coaches have given Cochran props all season long, but most of the time either the hitting or defense have lacked in his starts.

McClain said his pitchers will have to throw a lot of strikes and the team has to have “exceptional defense” to have a chance.

“Our biggest obstacle this season has been the fact that we can’t run any one pitcher out there who can bring in 88-89 miles per hour whereas the other region teams have two or three pitchers each that can do that,” said McClain. “Caleb’s been great for us, but he’s one pitcher. We lack that one kid who can come in and throw it by people and dominate a few innings. I think that comes with not being a heavy senior team.”

The offense picked up late in the season, and the Panthers have five guys batting .349 or better. Matt McKenzie is batting .402, David Parks is at .389 and Cochran is hitting .388.

But McClain said it’s going to take his team playing its best of the season to stun the fifth-ranked Wolfpack.

“In order for us to have a shot at pulling the upset, we’ll have to do all three (pitching, hitting and defense),” he said. “We’ll need to make plays, hit with runners in scoring position and throw strikes. We cannot give them extra out as and we can’t leave runners in scoring position. We have to take advantage of any mistake they make.”

The games are set for 4 and 7 p.m. in Evans.