For the rest of Elder’s players, opponents, and fans, there seems to always be one word that is heard when talking about Nastold: Nasty.

Nasty, as in a fastball that’s been clocked at 94 miles per hour to go along with a hard curveball. Nasty, as in a school-record 0.22 ERA his sophomore season, the best single-season effort by an Elder pitcher ever, including anyone from any of Elder’s 12 state championship teams.

The word fits him so well, not only is it the name he’s universally known by in the Elder dugout, but he also has it tattooed on his back.

The nastiest part, though, is that we still haven’t seen Nastold at his best.
Minor setbacks had limited his off-season training prior to his sophomore and junior seasons, and while on a religious retreat this September, just as it seemed Nastold would have a full off-season to prepare for his senior year, bad luck struck once again.

“We were basically playing backyard football,” Nastold said. “There were two kids who were holding on to me and I came up to a third guy and I tried to roll off of him and my leg stuck and he fell on top of me and it just snapped.”

Nastold had to have seven screws and a metal plate put in just above the ankle to stabilize his broken left leg, limiting him to primarily upper body work this off-season. Although that meant he could not do any hard throwing for much of the winter, Nastold took the injury in stride.

“It didn’t worry me, because I knew I was going to be dedicated,” he said. “I had been kind of taking it easy and just laid back, and what happened to my leg made me just work so much harder. I wasn’t doing what I should be, so I think it was God just giving me a kick in the butt.”

Elder head coach Mark Thompson saw it another way.

“Here we go again,” Thompson said. “Let’s see, before his sophomore year he had mono, before his junior year he had a little knee problem- it didn’t require surgery but we did have to kind of baby it- and now this year with the ankle. So every off-season it’s been something. He hasn’t really hasn’t had a chance to develop as fully as he could in the off-season, so when he does it could be scary.”

Even with the limited time to develop, Nastold’s ability was immediately evident.
As the Panthers were in the process of winning their most recent state championship in 2005, Nastold was elevated to the varsity team, something Thompson noted is quite rare.
“We’ve only had one other guy that we’ve brought up at the end of his freshman year and that was Aaron Brown, and he’s the best hitter I’ve coached,” Thompson said. “So we knew he was real special.”

Mike proved that in his record-setting sophomore season, going 5-0. Last year his ERA went up a run to a still dominating 1.23, but Thompson noticed his ace pitcher was pressing at times.

“Basically, what Mike was trying to do last year was throw the ball by everybody,” Thompson said. “When you have that kind of an arm and scouts start coming around, sometimes you start throwing to the guns and I think Mike got caught up in that a little bit.”
Still, when the Panthers had to have one more out to get them to the state semifinals, Thompson called upon Nastold to get the job done, and it was just a seeing-eye single that prevented Nastold from out-dueling one of the state’s top-rated left handers in the next game.

Nastold has signed to play college baseball at Louisville next season, but says he could be lured into professional baseball by the right offer from a team following Major League Baseball’s amateur draft in June.

Before then, Nastold would like to lead the Panthers on one last run deep into the state tournament.

“My sophomore year and junior year, I thought we could have gone farther than we did and our team knows that we could have, we just didn’t bring our ‘A’ game,” Nastold said. “That’s kind of an emphasis for this year.”

Thompson is confident Nastold is prepared to lead the way.
“He’s really matured, I think, since last year,” Thompson said. “Hopefully we see the results here, but I’m really excited about the way he has developed, not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually.”

If Thompson is right, Nastold could have Elder fans talking for years to come.

Breakout Quote: “I had been kind of taking it easy and just laid back, and what happened to my leg made me just work so much harder. I wasn’t doing what I should be, so I think it was God just giving me a kick in the butt.” – Mike Nastold, on his most recent injury problem.