By Ron Smith
May 21, 2025
 
(DALLAS) Westmont Baseball's Ryan Humphreys and Zach Yates have been named First Team All-Americans by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association – Humphreys as a starting pitcher and Yates as a reliever.
 
Humphreys and Yates become the second and third Westmont athletes to be named First Team All-Americans. Adrian McIntyre was named Division II Collegiate Commissioners Association Men's Basketball All-American on March 26. The only previous Division II All-American was Daniel Patterson who was selected for the NCBWA third team last season.
 
With a 12-1 record, Humphreys tied the record for most wins in a single season. In 88 innings, the lefty limited his opponents to a batting average of .186. He struck out 118 and walked just 29 on his way to a season ERA of 2.45. He averaged 12.07 strikeouts per nine innings of work.
 
Humphreys' career 12.41 strikeouts per nine innings is the best in Westmont history. He ranks second in career strikeouts (308) and in opponent's batting average (.196), and sixth in wins (22). He and Bryan Peck are two of three Warrior pitchers with more than 300 career strikeouts.
 
"I always try to evaluate players on their character and who they are as people," said Westmont's head coach Paul Svagdis – the PacWest and West Region Coach of the Year. "Ryan, right from the start, was an incredible leader. He helped me make this transition from the east coast back to the west coast. In the turmoil of transitioning through three coaches, he was an amazing, mature leader. I am so proud of his leadership this year.
 
"From a pure baseball standpoint, he overcame Tommy John surgery while he was at Westmont, losing a season of competition. Having to learn and redefine himself as an athlete was a big part of the process for him. Ryan certainly exhibited athletic character during his career here – being disciplined, having perseverance, and belief in yourself even when things aren't going well."
 
Speaking of Humphrey's journey back from surgery, Svagdis said, "In the baseball program, we all share a similar DNA from the connections we have in the game. From what I understand, when Ryan got hurt, he reached out to (former Westmont pitching coach) Tony Cougoule. He was a long-term coach here who helped establish the program. Tony played for me and coached for me. Now, TC is a Triple-A pitching coach for the Cubs. He is a tremendous developer of pitchers. He helped Ryan connect with someone who could help him with his mechanics prior to coming back from the injury. Then when he came back, Pitching Coach Rick Hubbard took over from there and helped him develop.
 
"Simply trusting his coaches and simplifying his approach was key to his development. He made a transition from the beginning of the year from being a high-pitch count, low innings-pitched pitcher, to the end of the year, when he pitched eight innings at the conference tournament. He said, 'Skip, that is the most innings I have ever pitched in my life.' His pitch count was low. We kept him within his pitch count, but he was able to go deeper into games. At the bigging of the year it was a big goal for us. We needed Peck and Hump to go deeper into games. He bought into that concept and worked to become that guy. Toward the end, that gave us every opportunity to win.
 
"I am going to miss him. Ryan is going to have a big year ahead of him next year. There are a lot of suitors out there. I can't wait to follow him.
 
Humphreys has another year of eligibility left which he can use as a graduate student.
 
Yates rewrote the Warriors' single season save record with 13. In his 23 appearances, he produced a record of 4-1 and an ERA of 2.16 in 41 2/3 innings of work. Yates struck out 51 batters and walked just nine.
 
The senior right-hander's name can be found in the career record book at the head of the saves category with 25. He also ranks first in games finished (47), second in strikeouts per nine innings (10.32), fifth in total appearances (71), and sixth in ERA (2.38) and opponent batting average (.212).
 
My son and daughter are older and have been around a lot of baseball," noted Svagdis. "They called me a couple of days ago and said, 'Yates has got to be one of the best you've ever coached in terms of being a lockdown guy.' They have seen a lot of great pitchers I have had an opportunity to coach through the years. I said, 'Yes.'
 
"He has a competitive fire. For people that know him off the field, to see him on the field is to see two different guys. He has two different switches. I wish I could bottle up his competitive fire to be his best in the biggest and the toughest moments.
 
"Zach is an incredible Christian leader on the team. He has probably won 17 different awards this year outside of baseball," quipped the coach. "I've never seen a guy get more awards in my life. He has certainly earned that recognition. He is an incredible teammate and fiery guy.
 
"What I am going to miss is walking up and meeting him halfway between the line and the dugout, giving him knucks, looking him in the eye, and him saying, 'We're going to lock this down the next inning.' It was such a complete level of belief in himself.
 
"I started out this season bringing him into the highest leverage, bases-loaded, one-run games. Those were some of his best performances. He is tough. I've never had a guy I felt that comfortable bringing in with the bases loaded and feeling like we were going to get out of it."
 
Part way through the season, Svagdis started bringing Yates into the game in the eighth inning instead of the ninth. Asked about how that decision came about, Svagdis replied, "It was all about pitch counts for Zach. Because we were so young in the back end of our team, Rick and I talked about the most effective way to use our best star. Because we were in 5-4 ballgames and 4-3 ballgames, we would go in with someone in the eighth, hoping we could get through the eighth and we would go to Ryan in the ninth.
 
"But things would get testy and we would have runners on first and second with no outs in a one-run game. So, we decided there was no use having our best guy sitting on the bench. If we didn't put a zero up in the eighth, then we weren't throwing him in the ninth. So, we started bringing him in in the eighth, thinking he would just go one inning. He'd go out there and finish the eighth on 11 pitches and we would look at him and he would say, 'I've got the ninth.'
 
"When you look at the Biola series, he had already saved two games on the first day. He told us the next day, I've got one inning. It was the seven-inning game, so we brought him in in the sixth. I asked him to give us a zero and I'll deal with the seventh. He had a six-pitch inning and he said, 'I've got the seventh.' So, it was a collaborative decision. I am a big believer in giving seniors that have been around the program a voice when they have earned it – guys who are not asking for themselves, but to help the team."
 
Westmont is the only school to have two players named on the NCBWA All-American First Team. The selection of two Westmont pitchers speaks to the contributions made by Hubbard to the development of the Westmont pitching staff.
 
"All of our assistant coaches have done an incredible job," expressed Svagdis. "We all have our areas of expertise and Rick, of course, is our pitching coach. He has been working with these guys for three seasons now. The pitchers love him and love working with him.
 
"Albert Einstein said 'The definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple'. I think what Coach Hubbard does is take the complex data and simplify it for the pitchers. Ryan, Yates, Peck with his amazing, record-breaking career, Joey Rico, Josh Hickey, Caden Beloian and Hunter Hammond all benefited from that ability. He is a rock star coach."
 
Humphreys and Yates, along with Bryce McFeely, are also up for Division II Conference Commissioners Association All-American consideration which is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, May 28.