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Breanne Nasti

BUFFALO, NY - If you look at the softball record books at the University at Buffalo, one name that you will see many times over is Breanne Nasti (Baldwin, NY/Baldwin).

Coming into this season, the senior outfielder was the holder of 15 school batting records as well as the Mid-American Conference mark for career batting average and single-season batting average. In her senior year she has continued to perform, hitting .324 with eight home runs and 26 RBIs through 39 games. She has also been named the MAC East Player of the Week twice this season.

All of the awards mean a lot, says Nasti, but "I am learning now that the more you think about things like that, the harder they are to do." As a senior, she feels she has a lot to live up to because of her past performance. She says that records are "good to hear about after the fact. I like to know they happened, but records are meant to be broken.''

Nasti grew up in Baldwin, NY, which lies in Nassau County on Long Island. She came to UB in 2000 for the Bulls' second season of Division I softball and first in the Mid-American Conference.

In order to make an immediate impact with the Bulls, Nasti had to make a change in her game. She was asked to take the field at shortstop more often than in her usual position in the outfield. Having never played shortstop, as well as the added difficulty of being left-handed at the position, the transition was tough.

"It was one of the harder things I have done with softball," she said. "I was getting the ball a lot more than I do out in the outfield. I had more jobs. I had to cover bases too. I felt I really had to work at it."

Despite having so much to think about on defense, her offense did not suffer. During her freshman year, Nasti set school single-season records for hits (59), home runs (10), runs scored (26) and RBIs (43), all of which still stand. She also tied a single-season record for batting average (.373). Her batting average, doubles, home runs, RBIs, total bases and slugging percentage not only led the team but also the MAC. She was the first UB softball player to be named the MAC East Player of the Week when she earned the award March 12, 2001 for the first week of the MAC season. Two weeks later, she won the award again.

Nasti's immediate impact at UB should not have been a surprise. She began playing baseball at age six and took up softball around age 12. She played both for a couple years but then stopped baseball to concentrate on softball. As a two-year captain at Baldwin High School, she led her team to a 48-3 record and earned five letters. During her junior season in 1999, she set the national high school record with a .774 batting average. She led her team to three conference championships, three county championships and the 1999 Long Island Championship while being named an All-American in each of her final three years.

Nasti was recruited out of high school by a few schools from New York, including Canisius and Stony Brook, and also looked at schoolsin Colorado. While playing in the New York State High School Championships at the Amherst Pepsi Center just across the street from UB, she made a visit to the campus. She decided that UB was the best fit for her, taking into account location, the staff and the girls in the program.

After her big freshman year, Nasti enjoyed a sophomore season at UB that would bring more success, more records and more awards. Her accomplishments were highlighted by a school and MAC record .451 batting average, good enough for seventh in the nation. It's an accomplishment she looks back on when running into a dry spell at the plate.

When she's in a slump, Nasti looks back on that national ranking and tells herself "I can do this because I am as good as a lot of these people are. I have seen it and I have done it, so I can do it again. That season and some of the things I did then are some of my best accomplishments while I was here."

The list of accolades for the 2002 season included two MAC East Player of the Week honors, 18 multi-hit games and a seventh-inning grand slam to beat Bowling Green that she notes as one of her most memorable moments on the field. She was an All-MAC First Team selection and was named to the MAC Academic Honor Roll. She also represented the MAC as the conference's lone selection to the NFCA (National Fastpitch Coaches Association) All-Mideast Region First Team.

Nasti's junior year brought more of the same. Even though she went 0-3 with three strikeouts, one of her most memorable games at UB was the Bulls' 1-0 win over Baylor on March 6 at Hawaii's Malihini Tournament, their first win ever over a nationally-ranked opponent.

"Personally it was not a good game for me," she said. "But as a team experience, it was amazing."

Nasti was named the MAC East Player of the Week for the fifth time in her career after beginning the 2003 season hitting .529 (9-for-17) at the Florida International Tournament. At the season's end, she would only hit one home run, in the season finale, but she finished the year ranked fourth in the MAC in batting average (.402) and led the MAC in on-base percentage (.496). She was named to her second All-MAC First Team and to the Academic All-MAC Team.

All of the statistics and awards from her first three seasons set the stage for a big senior year. The Bulls have just nine regular season games left, starting with a doubleheader on April 28 at St. Bonaventure. Nasti looks to continue her strong play. She is currently hitting .324 in 105 at bats and has been named MAC East Player of the Week twice, bringing her career total to seven. She has hit four of her eight home runs in the last week of play and was walked in all four of her plate appearances against Western Michigan on April 24 to set a UB single-game record. All of this to help the Bulls make a push to get into the Mid-American Conference Tournament for the first time in their short Division I history.

Nasti's success is not limited to between the lines; she has excelled in the classroom as well. As a psychology major, she has been named a UB Scholar Athlete in each of her three seasons and has been named to the MAC Academic Honor Roll, Academic All-MAC Team and the Verizon Academic All-District I Second Team, and she was an NFCA All-American Scholar Athlete in 2002.

"The academic awards are great," she said. "It's important for athletes to know that school is crucial too, especially when you are a female college athlete when there are less opportunities to keep going. You need to know that there are other things in life and you have to be good at them too."

In just a few weeks, her UB career will be over, but her name and her presence will not be forgotten any time soon. Her future is uncertain, but she would like to remain involved with softball.

"I want to stay in coaching," she said. "I am looking into graduate assistant positions and assistant coaching jobs. I would like to coach at the Division 1 level and do that for a while because I love it and I want to stay involved in it."

~ Written by Kasie Clarke