Twenty years ago, Gasti pitched Carmichaels to PIAA title
Nikki Gasti had a 68-7 record for Carmichaels, pitched eight perfect games and 13 no-hitters. Her career ERA was 0.23 with 850 strikeouts in 455 innings. She walked only 27 batters.
Nikki Gasti was carried off the field after Carmichaels defeated South Williamsport for the PIAA Class AA softball championship in 1998. Gasti had a 24-0 record that season and is third on Pitt’s all-time wins list.
Nikki Onderko
The winning formula was a bit more complicated than simply to “Give ’em the Gasti” for the Carmichaels High School girls softball team in the late 1990s.
But certainly, when Nikki Gasti was in the circle for the Mikes – the chance for and rate of success zoomed upward as fast as the softball whizzed past opposing batters
Gasti, who led Carmichaels to WPIAL championships in 1997 and 1998 and the PIAA crown 20 years ago, was a unique talent and as tough and determined as anyone on a diamond.
Not unlike most girls who grew up in Carmichaels, Gasti had designs on becoming the coveted Coal Queen at the Pennsylvania Bituminous Coal Show that is held each summer in Carmichaels. An admitted “girly-girl,” she loved to cheer and dance.
Though she didn’t win Coal Queen, opting to dance as her talent, instead of pitching a softball at her dad’s head and knocking an apple off the top of it, Gasti still ended up with other victories.
“I should have listened to my dad,” Gasti chuckled. “But I loved to dance.”
What set her apart, though, was that once-in-a-lifetime talent and ability to pitch a softball – pretty much anywhere she wanted and at a blazing speed – and wreck opposing batting orders. She lifted the Lady Mikes to a level of success only a few have the opportunity to celebrate and revel in.
“As soon as I was able to play, I did,” Gasti recalled. “I know I played mixed (girls and boys) T-ball and vividly remember picking daisies in the outfield my first year. I think I was about 8-years-old when I could play softball.
“I knew right away, I wanted to be a pitcher. I got bored in the outfield. I told my dad that I wanted to pitch because the pitcher got to handle the ball every play rather than stand around and wait for something to happen. I wanted to make something happen.”
Gasti surely did. But it took time, a lot of extra work with her father, Chuck, much learning and a bit of good fortune.
“All I knew at first was to take the ball, circle my arm and throw the ball,” Gasti said. “After awhile, my dad concluded, I guess, that I was OK at it.
“He said: ‘You have some talent. You’re pretty good at this.'”
From there, Gasti attended a camp at California University. She was tutored by Vulcans head softball coach, Rick Bertagnolli.
“They videotaped me. We watched it. I was critiqued and given opinions and advice,” Gasti said.
“They said I was going to be a player but gave me a whole list of things to change and to work on. I had natural talent but my mechanics were not right.
“My dad said: ‘Ok.’ And we went to work. For more than a month, maybe two, maybe three, I was a mess. My mom would sit on the porch and watch me try these new things and saw I was not doing well with the changes. She complained to my dad. She told him he ruined me. I couldn’t throw strikes. Balls were going everywhere.”
Eventually, Gasti figured it out. And ended up “throwing better than ever.”
The quest to become a special pitcher had started. Gasti played recreation softball and played fall ball before catching a break one day in Washington.
She was involved in a tournament in Washington, playing against a team from Trinity, whose pitcher became ill. Since Gasti was not the starting pitcher for the Carmichaels team, her coach offered her to Trinity.
“They sent me over to the other side,” Gasti remembered. “We ended up beating Carmichaels. It was just fall ball. But some people in Washington told my parents they needed to get me on a travel team.
“(The late) Pete Mowl suggested to my dad some teams. This was 16-and-under and I was about 12. From there, I joined the Metro Express team and later the Pittsburgh Patriots. If not for Pete Mowl, I’m not sure how all this would have turned out.”
Carmichaels is sure happy about how things turned out.
In four section-championship seasons, Gasti went undefeated in league competition. She was 68-7 overall, pitched eight perfect games and threw 13 no-hitters.
Her career ERA for the Mikes was 0.23 with 850 strikeouts in 455 innings. She allowed just 15 earned runs and walked only 27.
At times, her control was too good. Hitters, who at first would back away from her fastball, started to just swing at the behest of the other coach because they knew Gasti’s pitches would be in the strike zone.
Gasti’s father always stressed control and placement, and told his daughter she needed to throw outside the zone on occasion. He even taught her a purpose pitch.
“Some of these girls never saw a fastball like Nikki had,” Chuck Gasti explained. “She had such control that hitters started to stay in the box and swing.
“She had to make an adjustment and she did. She understood a little bit of wildness would be a good thing. The purpose pitch was just to move them back off the plate, not to hit or hurt them.”
In 1998, Carmichaels softball made history, winning the lone state championship in school history, Gasti led the way, helping the Mikes to a 26-0 record – including a 5-2 win over South Williamsport to claim the PIAA title. Gasti pitched a one-hitter and struck out eight.
“Twenty-years later, it feels like it was yesterday,” Gasti said. “It was so cool hanging out in the hotel the night before the game. Before the game, it was misty and rainy. It was not a nice day.”
But it was beautiful in so many ways.
“It was the biggest thing any of us had been involved with our whole lives, to that point,” Gasti said. “Absolutely it is im-portant. At the time, I think we all felt pretty cool. It still feels great. To win a state championship, I know how hard that is. I felt so proud of and great for West Greene last year when it won states. It’s special. The bond and the feeling do not go away.”
Gasti moved onto Pitt. It isn’t that the grass was greener – in fact, she worried she wouldn’t see any grass – on the Pitt campus. But the Panthers were a good fit and she helped build the foundation of where the Pitt program seems headed today.
“I knew I wasn’t going to an established program with a history of winning,” Gasti said. “Before my recruiting trip, I thought to myself, this is going to be awful. Here I am a country girl going to visit a school in the city. I had no idea what I would end up seeing and thinking.
“I remember actually seeing there was grass. The Cathedral of Learning, Heinz Chapel and so many other historic places and beautiful things. We went to a football game at Pitt Stadium. It was exciting. I loved it. My mother (Roxanne) said to my dad: “I don’t care if they pay or you pay, she’s coming here.’ They offered me a four-year, full scholarship. It was a lot to take in but I knew I was going to take it. Pitt was it for me.”
The decision allowed her parents, and brother, Chuck, who played on talented baseball teams at Carmichaels, to see her play.
Gasti went 10-10 as a freshman for the Panthers. She finished with 42 career wins, a 2.54 ERA, 17 shutouts and 61 complete games. She tossed a pair of no-hitters and was a three-time Big East Conference Pitcher of the Week.
“I have so many good memories and enjoyed a lot of good times. We had to play all over as we didn’t have our own field and the one they proposed met with much resistance. I do feel like I was part of the foundation for the program today. The foundation isn’t always the prettiest part. But it was important to what they are trying to do now.”
Gasti is a kindergarten teacher in the Central Greene School District. In 2015, she was inducted into the Washington-Greene Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.
She has three children, Bailey, 10, Nash, 2 ½, and Ace, 10 months. She is married to Nick Onderko and the family resides in Carmichaels. Bailey is a gifted gymnast and mom said if she ever decided to try softball, she’d have the necessary skills.
“She spends 18 hours a week in the gym,” Gasti said. “She does the board, swings all over. She’s awesome.”
Family is the reason Gasti decided to gain an education degree after majoring in communications and focusing on broadcast communications at Pitt.
“I wanted to have a family, and I realized to have the kind I wanted, broadcast communications wasn’t the kind of lifestyle that fit with that thinking,” she added. ” I know I would have loved broadcast communications. But I love being a mom and I get no greater joy than being with my kids and on similar schedules. I would not trade what I do.”