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Riser comes to the Tigers after 10 seasons as head coach at Southeastern Louisiana, where he helped guide the Lions to four NCAA Tournament berths and three Southland Conference titles. He was also recently recognized by Baseball America as one of the nation’s top coaches under the age of 40.
Southeastern Louisiana’s success under Riser garnered national recognition, leading to the program’s first at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament (2016), first preseason national ranking (2017) and a Top-25 ranking during the 2018 season. Southeastern’s four NCAA appearances since 2014 placed Riser third all-time in Southland history.
With 320 wins with the Lions and back-to-back 40-win seasons (2015-16), Riser finished second in program history in all-time wins with his overall record of 320-224.
In 15 total seasons at Southeastern, Riser coached 22 All-Americans, including nine Freshman All-Americans and a trio of Academic All-Americans, the National Stopper of the Year, the nation’s leading hitter and 10 Academic All-District players. Four were named the Southland Conference Player of the Year and three earned Freshman of the Year honors. A pair were named Southland Relief Pitcher of the Year while one was named both Southland Pitcher of the Year and Louisiana Pitcher of the Year. Twenty-five players were drafted under Riser’s tutelage.
In 2022, the Lions totaled 14 comeback victories – including seven walk-off wins – on the way to earning a Southland Conference Tournament championship and returning to NCAA postseason action. Riser led the Lions earned marquee wins over No. 3-ranked Arkansas and No. 1-ranked Ole Miss, the eventual national champion, grinding through a slate of games that ranked seventh in the nation in non-conference strength of schedule.
A native of Bossier City, Louisiana, Pemberton comes to Memphis after spending the last two seasons in the same roles under Riser at Southeastern Louisiana.
Pemberton helped the Lions’ 2022 offense to program top-10 totals in doubles, triples and home runs in his first season. The 70 home runs hit by Southeastern were the fourth-most in program history and the most in over twenty years.
Four players slugged double-digit home runs for the first time in school history in 2022 under Pemberton’s guidance. In addition, the Lions logged over 100 doubles for the first time since 2010.
SLU led the nation in batters getting hit by pitch, led by Rhett Rosevear who tied the DI single-season record for HBPs. The Lions set or tied more than 14 Southland Conference Tournament offensive records during its run to the 2022 championship.
Under his tutelage, Southeastern infielders also showed a marked improvement defensively as they helped the Lions produce a program-best .978 fielding percentage during the 2022 season.
He has served as a board member of the Louisiana Baseball Coaches Association since 2022 and was a featured speaker at the 2023 LBCA Convention. In addition, Pemberton is a member of the American Baseball Coaches Association. He served as a speaker at both the Bayou/River Coaches Clinic in 2017 and the LHSAA Coaches Clinic in 2019.
Pemberton made the leap to the collegiate level in July of 2016, joining the Nicholls staff as Director of Baseball Operations and Camp Coordinator before moving onto the coaching staff a year later. A second promotion followed in August 2019 with Pemberton taking over as the Colonels’ hitting coach along with a focus on base-running, the squad’s catchers and serving as the program’s academic liaison.
Pemberton also played a major role in Nicholls’ recruiting efforts, practice organization and scheduling.
Prior to Nicholls, Pemberton served as an assistant at C.E. Byrd High School in Shreveport from 2014 to 2016. While at Byrd, he served as an associate scout for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Prior to his time at Byrd, Pemberton spent time as an assistant coach at Zachary High School and Parkview Baptist High School. He helped lead all three schools to the LHSAA State Championship.
He attended Haughton High School and graduated from Louisiana State University in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and from Arkansas State in 2019 with a Master of Science in Sport Administration.
Pemberton and his wife, Sarah, have a son, John Ford, and a daughter, Cate.
A former Tiger catcher and native of Trussville, Ala., Barton returns to Memphis after spending the last two seasons as the pitching coach at Mercer University.
In 2023, Barton helped the Bears to a runner-up conference finish and wins over Baylor and Rutgers. Barton saw standout pitcher Josh Harlow selected by the Cleveland Guardians in the 19th round of the 2023 MLB Draft. The Bears enjoyed a 40-win season and were runners up in the Southern Conference in 2022 as well. Barton’s staff led the league in strikeouts and batting average against in 2022, and in addition, his staff had the second-lowest ERA in the Southern and lowered its ERA after losing 200 innings of experience from the 2021 team.
Before his two seasons as the pitching coach at Mercer, Barton spent three season (2019-2021) at Rice University as the pitching coach.
In his final season at Rice, Barton’s pitching staff was led by Brandon Deskins, who ranked 11th in Conference USA with a 3.88 earned run average. Not only did Deskins lead the pitching staff in ERA, but he also lead the team in strikeouts (73), averaging 12.3 strikeouts per nine innings, the 33rd-best mark in the nation.
Under Barton, the 2019 season proved to be a smashing success for the Rice pitchers. Not only was right-hander Matt Canterino named the Conference USA Pitcher of the Year, he was selected in the second round of the 2019 Major League Draft as the 54th overall selection. Four other Rice pitchers – Evan Kravetz, Garrett Gayle, Addison Moss and Roel Garcia – were all selected in the 2019 draft due to Barton’s influence. The Rice pitching staff led Conference USA with 520 strikeouts on the season while Canterino (.199) and Kravetz (.200) finished first and second in lowest opposing batting average.
Barton joined Rice after a stint at Louisiana Tech, where he served as the Bulldogs’ pitching coach and was named the 2018 Conference USA Assistant Baseball Coach of the Year. Not only did Louisiana Tech lead the league and finish 25th in the nation with a 3.48 ERA, the pitching staff also posted C-USA’s second-best strikeouts-to-walks ratio (2.77-to-1), the 15th best ratio among all Division I pitching staffs. The staff was also 12th nationally in walks allowed per nine innings. The Bulldogs finished the season with a 21-9 record in conference play, setting the program record for league wins. The Bulldogs were 31st in the nation in WHIP (1.29), tied for second in the conference with four shutouts and maintained a steady .253 opponent batting average.
Prior to Louisiana Tech, Barton served four years as Associate Head Coach/Recruiting Coordinator at McNeese State where he helped lead the Cowboys to the 2017 Southland Conference regular season title. While at McNeese, the Cowboys won 30 games or more each year for the first time since 1995 and were also ranked in the top 25 for the first time in school history during the 2017 campaign. In 2015 the Cowboys posted a 3.66 team ERA, the second-best mark in the last 20 seasons, while also setting the then school record for strikeouts in a season with 466.
Barton is a 2007 graduate of Memphis and was on staff as an undergraduate assistant coach during Memphis’ 2007 NCAA Regional season. He also spent five seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at UL-Monroe (2008-13). He and his wife, Robin, have one son, Cooper.
A Brusly, La., native and former player under Riser at Southeastern Louisiana who started 115 games from 2019-23, Manola comes to Memphis after a playing career in which he was a four-year team captain. He was a member of the 2022 Southland Conference Tournament Championship team that also made an appearance in the 2022 NCAA Auburn Regional.
Manola spent the previous three summers coaching high school summer baseball at Brusly High School in Louisiana. During his time coaching at Brusly, Manola coached a pair of athletes who went on to sign and play college baseball.
Additionally, Manola was a six-time member of the Southland Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll during his time in Hammond as a student-athlete. He served as the SAAC President at SLU from 2021-23 and led multiple community service projects and group fundraisers.
Manola earned his undergraduate degree in kinesiology with a concentration in fitness and human performance in December of 2021 and earned his master’s degree in business administration in May of 2023, both from Southeastern Louisiana University.
Manola and his fiancé Jennifer are looking forward to joining the Memphis community.
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