Enterprise High School senior Ridge Mathis has pitched to a 2.12 earned-run average over the season while hitting .423 on the year.

Pitching isn’t something Enterprise senior Ridge Mathis has done his entire baseball career.

“I pitched a little in Little League, but other than that, not much,” Mathis said.

After his freshman year of high school, though, Mathis was presented with the opportunity to transition to the mound for the Bulldogs. Over time, he made steady improvement to his game. Now, Mathis is Enterprise’s No. 2 starter and has pitched to a 2.12 earned-run average over the season while hitting .423 on the year.

Mathis’ freshman season was Enterprise baseball coach John Welch’s first year coaching the team. He bluntly recalled his initial impression of the righty, noting how far he’s come due to the hard work put in.

“When I got here, he was short and pudgy,” Welch said. “That’s the best (description) I can give, but he always struck me as a kid who desired to be good and would do whatever it took to get on the field and help the team.”

So Welch decided to give Mathis a look at pitcher, and Mathis would go on to stick at the position. Though he hadn’t thrown from the mound in several years by the time he was a 10th-grader, Mathis said the desire to pitch was always on the back of his mind thanks to his experience in youth ball.

“Whenever I did pitch in Little League, I loved it,” Mathis recalled. “I loved challenging people putting the team on my shoulders and helping out the team as best I could. I felt (pitching) was a great place to do it.”

Mathis worked with the coaches to fine-tune his pitching, but Welch said the real difference for Mathis was in the weight room.

“That’s where he excelled,” Welch said. “We’d give him expectations every year, and every year he would exceed those expectations and goals in the weight room. It’s a testament to how hard he works and how much this matters to him.”

Getting into better shape began to translate onto the field the more time he spend lifting weights, and Mathis credited Welch and the rest of the coaching staff for working with him and being dedicated to his success.

“It’s been great,” Mathis said. “He’s helped shape me into the player I am. When I started, I was not in any condition to play baseball, and he went to work. He’s the one who got me here.”

Pitching was a smooth transition for Mathis, who honed his fastball while also working to develop his curveball and changeup. With his arsenal, Mathis said he enjoys taking instruction from pitching coach Josh Palmer and trying to outguess hitters when he’s on the mound.

“I just like challenging people,” Mathis said. “It’s the thrill of competing.”

Said Welch, “He’s a competitor. Every pitch matters to him. He doesn’t strike out a lot of people, but he understands he needs to pitch to contact. He has less than 10 walks this season, and when you send a guy to the mound who won’t walk people, you trust him immensely, because if you don’t walk people and don’t commit errors, it’s very difficult to score in high school ball. He wants to be the best he can be, and no one can tell him he’s not good enough.”

Enterprise won its region this year and will take on Puckett in a three-game series beginning Friday for the second round of the MHSAA Class 2A postseason. Mathis said the team’s pitching and hitting has been huge for the Bulldogs’ success, but the biggest factor may be the players’ competitive spirits.

“It’s just the way they play and their will to win,” Mathis said of his teammates. “We work hard and want to win, and it’s gotten us to where we are.”

Though Enterprise lost eight seniors from last year’s team, Welch said the team’s success has a lot to do with the players not buying into the idea it would be a down year because they lost those guys. 

“I’ve had a lot of fun this year, being able to watch these guys go from where they were,” Welch said. “We were not a very good team in January, but they took it upon themselves to get better. They’re a fun group to coach. They don’t put pressure on themselves, and we don’t put too much pressure on them. They just go out and play and have fun.”

Going into the second round, Mathis said he and his teammates feel good about their chances to make a run at a state title because everyone in the starting lineup is a take-charge type of player.

“We have the will to win, and everyone wants to make a play,” Mathis said. “I feel like that will be a determining factor in the end.”