Enterprise baseball picked right up where it left off last season under the leadership of second-year head coach Austin Hood.

The Yellow Jackets again only had one senior on the roster, the same as the 2023 season and just like last year, they made it to the MHSAA 1A quarterfinals and lost to the eventual state champions again, this season Taylorsville and last season Resurrection Catholic.

And just like last season, Hood has been named The Daily Leader All-Area Coach of the Year.

It’s been a memorable year for the graduate of Union High School, who came to Enterprise after working on the baseball staff at Newton County High.

In March, he and his wife Bailey welcomed their first child, a daughter named Peyton.

And if Hood is going to earn COY honors in 2025, it’ll be for an entirely different sport as he recently announced on social media that he would be taking over as head softball coach at Bogue Chitto.

If his work at Enterprise is repeated at BC, he’ll have the proud softball program there rebuilt in short order.

Hood won 20 games at Enterprise and online records that stretch back to 2008 don’t have the Yellow Jackets winning that many games in a season in the last 15 years.

With a deep pitching staff in 2024 at Enterprise that had three quality starting arms in sophomore Kelly Burgess, sophomore Ryder Martin, and sophomore Cooper Jordan, Hood and his staff knew they’d have an advantage over most of their 1A foes in that area.

At the plate, the Jackets (19-13) were powered by junior designated hitter Prewitt “Big Rig” Falvey. Junior infielder Nick Harris led off at the plate for Enterprise while he was joined most times in the starting lineup by freshman infielder Hagan Floyd, sophomore catcher Tucker Vining, junior infielder Parker Harris, sophomore outfielder AJ Raiford, eighth grader outfielder Jiles Williams and outfielder Gavin Regouffre, the only senior on the roster.

In announcing his departure from EAC, Hood thanked his players for their shared success, winning 40 combined games over two seasons and reaching the 1A quarterfinals in both years.

“I couldn’t have done it without the great group of guys I had the opportunity to lead and serve,” said Hood. “My players that I had the privilege to coach, thank you for the relationships we built and the effort you gave me every day.”