Louisiana-Monroe has tapped Memphis assistant Ford Pemberton to be its next head baseball coach, sources told Baseball America on Tuesday.
Pemberton replaces Michael Federico, who led the program for eight seasons and posted a 23-33 overall record in 2025, including an 8-22 mark in Sun Belt play.
Pemberton joins ULM after a two-year stint at Memphis, where he served as hitting coach and recruiting coordinator. In his first season with the Tigers in 2024, he helped engineer one of program’s most productive offenses, which hit 68 home runs—fifth-most in program history—and ranked second in the AAC with 284 walks. The Tigers also led the AAC with 89 stolen bases and finished among the national top 15 in double plays turned.
In 2025, the Tigers didn’t replicate the same production, finishing with a .244 team average and 57 home runs, but the program continued to build momentum, both on the field and in recruiting, which Pemberton oversaw.
Before Memphis, Pemberton spent two seasons at Southeastern Louisiana under head coach Matt Riser, where he was in charge of a 2022 offense that produced program top 10 marks in doubles, triples and home runs. The Lions won the Southland Tournament that spring and set or tied over a dozen conference offensive records in the process.
A native of Bossier City, Louisiana, Pemberton brings deep ties to the state’s recruiting landscape, having coached at Nicholls and worked extensively with the Louisiana Baseball Coaches Association. His connections in the region give ULM a foundation to retool and compete in the increasingly-deep Sun Belt Conference.
This marks Pemberton’s first head coaching opportunity at the Division I level.
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