Gates, Humphries, Sever Named All-WCC
6/1/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
June 1, 2011
Complete 2011 All-WCC Release in PDF Format 
MALIBU, Calif. - Juniors Aaron Gates and Brian Humphries, and sophomore Joe Sever of the Pepperdine baseball team were named Wednesday to the 2011 All-West Coast Conference Team. Humphries has been recognized for his excellence by the conference head coaches the last three seasons, while Gates and Sever are both first-time honorees.
Newcomers Scott Frazier (Upland, Calif./Upland HS) and Corey Miller (Laguna Niguel, Calif./JSerra Catholic HS) also received tribute as each was named to the WCC All-Freshman Team.
Sever (San Jose, Calif./Bellarmine College Preparatory), a member of the conference's honorable mention and all-freshman squads in 2010, carried the Waves hottest bat over the season's final six weeks during which he batted .386 with six doubles, five home runs and 19 RBI. He entered the end of April hitting .225, but his strong finish down the stretch lifted his batting average 54 points to a season-ending clip of .279.
Sever started 55 of the club's 56 games and led the Waves in a bevy of offensive categories, including home runs (6), RBI (32), runs (30), doubles (13) and total bases (89).
Defensively, Sever represented one half of the WCC's top double-play tandem as he and sophomore Zach Vincej (Saugus, Calif./Saugus HS) combined to spin 52 of their team's league-leading 71 double plays. Playing behind a number of ground-ball pitchers, Sever also came up with 361 chances and was credited with 228 assists.
Gates (Villa Park, Calif./Orange Lutheran HS) benefitted from the play of his defense probably more than any other pitcher in the conference, finishing the year with 138 ground outs and a conference-best 19 double plays. Although he certainly helped his own cause by limiting opposing hitters to a .212 average, picking off six base runners, and striking out 57 through 94.1 innings pitched. Gates ERA at season's end was a respectable 3.15.
The left-hander finished the year with a 4-5 record (2-2 vs. WCC), but three of those defeats were against top-flight clubs from Fresno State, Louisville and East Carolina, while the other two were one-run losses to WCC leaders Gonzaga and San Francisco. In between those aforementioned contests, however, Gates rattled off a career best three-game winning streak, besting nationally ranked and NCAA qualifier Coastal Carolina, Dayton and Portland. He then completed his 2011 campaign with his first-ever complete game victory against Saint Mary's.
Humphries appeared in 54 games with 51 starts, compiling a .288 batting average with three home runs and 28 RBI to go along with his team-leading 60 base hits and 11 stolen bases. He played most of the season in center field, but also made 17 starts in left, where he continued to display great range and chased down a number of shots hit toward the gap or foul line.
At the plate, Humphries was Pepperdine's leading clutch hitter, batting well over .300 with runners on base and driving in 14 runs when there were two outs. Additionally, he led the team with seven multi-RBI games, tied Sever for the most multi-hit contests with 16 and matched senior Trent Diedrich (Fresno, Calif./Bullard HS) for the longest hitting streak at 11 games.
Because of injury, Frazier was limited all season to just four starts but he was more than effective in all of them, finishing his rookie season with a 2-1 record, a 1.00 ERA and eight strikeouts. Frazier was shelved for some time after becoming the first true freshman to start an Opening Day game (2/18 vs. Eastern Kentucky) during head coach Steve Rodriguez' eight-year tenure, but recovered at the start of April to help the Waves push through the first month of conference action.
In his first start back from injury, Frazier struck out a career-best four batters vs. Portland, and then followed that performance with a 4.0 inning, one-run effort at San Diego. He won his second game of the year after holding Loyola Marymount to one unearned run over 6.0 innings, leading Pepperdine to yet another series victory over their archrivals.
Miller, a reliever who appeared in 19 games, was at his best this season vs. conference opponents, ending the year with a 1.08 ERA and 10 strikeouts. He also notched his first career save in a game at Portland, blanking the Pilots over the final 3.0 innings with a game-high four Ks. Miller matched this strikeout total a second time vs. Santa Clara.
Miller didn't make his collegiate debut until mid-March, but started his career with 9.1 consecutive scoreless innings out of the bullpen, silencing the likes of Louisville, Coastal Carolina, Dayton, Cal Poly and BYU.
Pepperdine finished 2011 with an overall record of 22-34 and 7-14 mark against the WCC. The Waves are currently in Italy, interspersing their sight-seeing schedule with games vs. Orioles Grosseto and Nettuno. Pepperdine faced the Orioles on Tuesday night and will take on Nettuno on June 4.
