Risdon Promoted, Mitchell Added to Baseball Staff
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Head baseball coach Tod Brown, entering his third year at the helm of the Lobos, has promoted assistant coach Matt Risdon to recruiting coordinator and assistant coach after spending 2023 as a volunteer assistant. In conjunction with that move, Brown has also announced the hiring of new assistant coach Justin Mitchell, who spent last season with the Kansas State Wildcats.
The Lobos are coming off their first winning campaign in a full season and their most wins since 2016 when the team won the regular season Mountain West title on the way to a 30-27-1 season. Last year the Lobos went 26-25, once again beating a pair of ranked foes for the second straight season under Brown.
“Matt did a terrific job with our program in 2023 as a volunteer assistant, and he made our program better,” said Brown. “He has served as a recruiting coordinator before and he will be terrific in this new role.”
For Mitchell, Brown said, “I’m excited to bring in a coach like Justin Mitchell. He was a hard-working player who played the game the right way, and that’s how he coaches. He will bring great experience from the Big 12 to our program. I’m excited to have him as part of the team.”
Risdon got his collegiate coaching career started after his graduation from Western Illinois, where he playing in 40 career games for the Leathernecks. With Western Illinois he started as a director of operations before moving into a graduate assistant coaching position before finally earning a full-time coaching role as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator.
From Western, he moved to Lenoir-Rhyne in Hickory, North Carolina where he served for three seasons as an assistant. While at Lenoir-Rhyne, the Bears set a host of offensive records and went 46-13 in his final season, advancing to the NCAA Division II National Tournament.
For Mitchell, he spent last year as a graduate assistant coach at K-State under Pete Hughes. Last year the Wildcats went 35-24 and advanced to the semifinals of the Big 12 Championship. Mitchell played one season at K-State, hitting .308 with five homers and 22 RBIs over 52 games, playing catcher as a grad transfer. Mitchell played four seasons at Oklahoma, where he graduated. Over his time he played in 116 games, hitting .261 with two homers and 38 RBIs. He recorded 991 career putouts as a catcher.