Editor’s note: Every other week, Nevada Sports Net will spotlight a local sports figure as part of our “Legendary Athletes” series, which is presented in partnership with Legends Bay Casino. Today’s featured athlete is Eric Nachtsheim, a Reno native and former Reno High right-handed pitcher who was drafted in the sixth round (No. 179 overall) by the San Francisco Giants in this year’s MLB draft.

Long before Reno native Eric Nachtsheim could envision himself in a San Francisco Giants uniform, the first baseball jersey he owned had Buster Posey’s name on the back.

And earlier this summer, it was Posey’s Giants — the legendary catcher is now San Francisco’s president of baseball operations — who selected Nachtsheim in the MLB draft.

“My mom still has that jersey,” Nachtsheim said. “She has it stored away. It really hit me how incredible it was to get drafted by this organization. I grew up watching Giants baseball. I grew up a baseball fan. Lots of my family members are Giants baseball fans. A lot of my friends are, and the major-league stadium is only a few hours away. I keep saying it, but it’s really just surreal how everything has played out in such a unique and incredible way.”

Nachtsheim was picked in the sixth round at No. 179 overall by the Giants. A 2022 Reno High graduate, Nachtsheim took the junior-college route, spending two seasons at Mesa Community College in Arizona before transferring to McNeese State. He appeared in three games at McNeese State in 2025 before a banner season in 2026 put him on scouts’ radars.

Nachtsheim appeared as a starter and in relief last season and posted an 8-4 record with a 3.39 ERA, striking out 129 batters against 21 walks in 93 innings. His 129 strikeouts ranked ninth in Division I baseball. Nachtsheim earned a pair of All-American honors from Perfect Game and Baseball America and was named the Southland’s Relief Pitcher of the Year.

“I think that there’s a lot of things that went into it,” Nachtsheim said. “I’m sure there are things that went into it that I don’t even realize at this point. But I think all of my coaches, all the people I’ve surrounded myself with, whether it was my coaches at McNeese or people I work with back home in Reno over the summer, they all kind of gave me a good plan and good motivation and believed in me that I could really do this thing and have a good senior year. I kind of exceeded a lot of what my expectations were for my senior year, but I think the support that I had around me — it wasn’t even just my coaches, but my family and friends — they all knew I have it in me to do this. I just had to find a way to be able to do it.”

The 6-foot-4, 235-pound right-hander believes the biggest improvement he made between his junior and senior seasons was his extension before release, which made his pitches play up. Nachtsheim was one of two Northern Nevada products invited to the MLB Draft Combine at Chase Field in June, which featured roughly 330 of the best high school and college draft-eligible prospects nationwide. The other was Bishop Manogue product Cal Scolari, a fifth-round pick by the White Sox.

Nachtsheim imagined what draft day might look like but the moment he was drafted by the San Francisco Giants surpassed that imagination.

“It’s definitely a little surreal,” Nachtsheim said. “I didn’t really know how to react in the moment and kind of looking back on it, it still doesn’t even feel real at this point. This whole process has kind of just been a dream come true. So, everything that’s happened, it’s just kind of been surreal. And on draft day, it all happened really quick, kind of sitting there waiting for something to happen, little murmurs of what might go on and then all of a sudden we get a call and it’s, ‘OK, you’re gonna be a San Francisco Giant. They’re taking you in three picks. Here we go’. So, it was definitely exhilarating on the day.”

Nachtsheim is the latest in a string of Reno High products to be selected in the MLB draft. He follows Grayson Grinsell, a sixth-round pick by Detroit in 2025; Gunner Gouldsmith, a 19th-round pick by the Athletics in 2024; and Skylar Hales, a fourth-round pick by Texas in 2023. Nachtsheim credits his high school head coach, Pete Savage, for helping him be prepared for the next step of his baseball career, which is now with the organization’s Arizona Complex League affiliate.

“He does a great job,” Nachtsheim said of Savage. “You go into college knowing what’s expected of you. You go into each next step not really getting surprised by what’s expected of you. Sometimes it’s not always the most talented team or the most talented player that ends up succeeding. It’s the guy who will do all the little things right. So, Coach Savage does a great job of that with his guys and making sure everybody is as prepared as they can possibly be for the next step in their career.”

You can watch our interview with Eric Nachtsheim above.