“We have a coach that’s ready to start winning now rather than rebuild a whole entire roster and start winning five years down the road. That means a lot to me.”
Austin Baskins, Senior Utility
A new season of Memphis Tigers baseball is upon us, and with the new season comes a lot of new faces. Last season they brought in Kerrick Jackson who was hired after longtime coach Daron Schoenrock announced his retirement after 18 years on the job. Jackson went on to lead the Tigers to a 29-28 record and their best conference finish since 2015.
After the season ended, Jackson left for his home state of Missouri to be the head coach for the Missouri Tigers, where he was previously an assistant. With the departure, Memphis welcomes in Matt Riser, from Southeastern Louisiana University.
“We’re trying to transform this program into a national program, you know, like football and basketball.” Coach Riser said at his press conference leading up to opening day.
The new head man also had the task of hiring a completely staff as all of the assistants from the previous were gone as well. “The first step obviously was having to get the staff put together that had the same vision I had. We did that quickly and very efficiently,” Riser said.
Riser brought one of his former assistants at SLU in hitting and field coach Ford Pemberton, former player under Riser at SLU now assistant coach Connor Manola, and former pitching coach at Mercer University Cory Barton
Riser brings quite a resumé to Memphis. He won 30 or more games in eight of his 10 seasons as the head coach at Southeastern Louisiana.
Riser had a challenge ahead of him of replenishing a Memphis roster that depleted with a mix of transfer portal entries and MLB Draft. Six of the top seven hitters for the Tigers last season are gone as well as their two best pitchers from last year, who were both selected into the MLB Draft.
The sole top bat that stayed through the coaching change was Utility player Austin Baskin. The Covington, Tennessee native said Riser’s win now attitude is what made him buy in and want to stay in Memphis.
“We have a coach that’s ready to start winning now rather than rebuild a whole entire roster and start winning five years down the road,” Baskin said. “That means a lot to me.”
The senior is looking to build off a season where he scored a team-leading 49 runs while hitting .287 in 216 at-bats
The pitcher that will begin the season for the Tigers is senior right-hander David Warren. Warren brings the most starting experience for the Tigers. The former Pensacola State transfer pitched 72.2 innings and ended with 5.57 ERA. He will be looked at as the anchor for the starting staff and be one of the veteran leaders for the team.
“Experience has been a big factor,” Warren said. “I started in junior college and working my way through junior college…and being able to play against a lot of different levels of competition is a big thing.”
The Tigers will begin their season with a weekend series on the road against Jacksonville State. The first game will be Friday at 3 p.m. on ESPN+.
Photos by Jacob Morgan/Tigerpen
The Tigerpen 