After a semester of serving as interim head coach to Lion baseball, Matt Riser has been selected by Athletic Director Jay Artigues to serve as head coach.
Riser is the university’s 16th head baseball coach and, at age 30, is one of the youngest coaches at the NCAA Division I level.
Riser had served under Artigues as assistant coach for several years, but when Artigues was promoted to Director of Athletics in 2013, Riser filled the position.
According to Riser, Artigues left the baseball team in good shape, therefore a slew of changes are unnecessary.
“No it’s the same ship for the most part. Our identity as a team and a staff has always been hard nose, blue collar, work hard, play hard type of deal and not a whole lot of deviance from that,” said Riser. “You know it’ll be a little bit different. I’ll put my twist on it. There’ll be a different offense we’ll play out there, but for the most part we pitch and play deep.”
“It’s a veteran staff were bringing back and a lot of kids with a lot of experience and the new kids we brought in to replace the old people, position-wise, are a little bit more physical so we’ll probably play a little more run/hit as opposed to hit/run and sack bunts, but for the most part it’ll be the same ship.”
Riser joined the staff in 2008 as a volunteer assistant coach under Artigues.
The next season, Riser was promoted to a full-time assistant’s position and worked extensively with the university’s outfielders and served as the Lion’s primary hitting coach.  
Under Riser, Brock Hebert was named the 2012 Southland Conference Player, and Hitter of the Year (.374, 58 runs, 21 doubles, 36 stolen bases).  
Also under Riser, Senior Jonathan Pace hit .350, bringing the Lions two of the top six hitters in the conference.  The pair, along with National Stopper of the Year, Stefan Lopez gave Southeastern three first-team, All-Conference players.
During the 2010 season, many records were broken, producing five All-Conference players and Riser guiding the Lions to the top of five offensive categories in the Southland Conference.
Cass Hargis and previous record holder, Ty Summerlin, who was drafted in the 30th round by the Pittsburgh Pirates following his senior campaign, were also coached by Riser.      
During his career thus far, Riser has mentored eight All-Americans, including five Freshmen All-Americans and the program’s first Capital One Academic All-American, as well as seven Major League draftees.  
As a junior in college, Riser played a vital role in helping Tulane reach the 2005 College World Series.  During his senior season he produced three home runs, 37 RBIs and 16 doubles, helping Tulane to an NCAA Regional Final Appearance.
Before his time at Tulane, Riser played for Artigues at Pearl River Community College, where he earned All-Region XXII and Region XXII Defensive Player of the Year honors as a sophomore and .347 as a freshman, while compiling 30 doubles, 110 hits and 109 runs scored in his two-year junior college career.
Riser admits that he goes to Artigues for advice, but that their relationship goes past the  professional arena and is actually a friendship.
“Coach Artigues is one of my mentors. I played for him in junior college. He’s a big, big part and a big reason why I’m where I’m at today,” said Riser. “I’ve learned a lot of the baseball side of it from him, but also the mental side of it as well, so yes he’s a big mentor to me, and I constantly go into his office more [on the level] of a friend than as a boss.”
Artigues did not leave his position without giving some advice to the new head coach.
“He told me, ‘you know I’m not giving you the job I’m giving you the opportunity’,” said Riser. “You’re going to earn the job. You guys are going to win by doing what we’ve always done, which is pay attention to detail, hold the kids accountable, hold yourself accountable and responsible, and you’re going to do that part of it. He said, ‘continue to do what’s made us successful, don’t change anything, keep running the same stuff we’ve been doing and hopefully we’ll get the lucky bounce to get the championship’.”
The recent sanctions that have been put on Lion athletics have had a slight impact on baseball team.  The number of scholarship offered went down from 11.7  to 10.7 for the 2014-2015 season. The team has been preparing for the changes though.
“We lost a full scholarship and that will be for this season and the next season. We already knew the sanctions were going to be upon us so we went ahead and set up fort as if we had the sanction put on us,” said Riser. “When we go out to sign a kid we just go out with the mindset of 10.7 instead of 11.7. There’s no post-season ban or anything like that.”
Riser remains thankful and optimistic about his newly acquired position.
“Finalizing this process with that press conference, it was nice to have the final pieces of the puzzle. And with the process being done now we can move forward, its going to help us, obviously, recruiting wise,” said Riser. “I think everybody knew or had an idea it was coming down the shoot eventually, but to have it finalized and official now is obviously a blessing for us and our family.”