Hurt or healthy, Berkley Calapp answers the call of duty

BATON ROUGE, La. – Since her junior year at Louisiana Tech, Berkley Calapp, the Lady Techsters’ unlikely-likely starter at first base for Friday’s 2 p.m. game against Texas Tech in the Baton Rouge Regional at Tiger Park, has lived through having her hand, thumb, head, wrist, and feelings hurt.

She played through some lower back stress at one point in high school but didn’t miss a game. Injury-free at Tech in 30 appearances as a freshman and 41 starts at third base as a sophomore.

But at practice as a junior, she broke her hand when the runner and ball hit her glove at the same time on a rundown play. Weird. And since then, she’s required her own little MASH unit.

Two weeks after she’d recovered from the broken hand, Berkley’s right hand thumb got hurt. Thought it was broken; turned out to be dislocated. Lost about a month.

She made it nearly two full innings playing second base in this, her senior season, before she and fellow infielder Lindsay Edwards, playing in only her first college game and beginning a CUSA-Freshman of the Year season, collided under a high, wind-blown pop and … concussion.

Then the cruelest slap of all, if you consider both timing and bad luck, came in a 6-0 win over ULM in Ruston on an early-April Tuesday night.

“I’m sliding in home, and the way I put my hand on the ground, it was in the same position where I’d broken my hand my junior year,” she said. “Bone contusion in my wrist joint. Left hand. Glove hand. I’m playing through that one and it sucks. But I’m doing it.”

She wears another glove under her fielding glove and under her batting glove to reduce pressure that’s put on her wrist when she catches or hits.

“I guess ever since that first injury last year,” she said, “I’ve had to learn how to make the most of it.”

Twenty-two starts she’s missed this year. That’s enough to make some people call in the dogs and put out the fire were it not for proper training in the home. Instead, the little sis of a Marine and the girlfriend of a Marine, a video gamer whose favorite series is Call of Duty, “Berk” has soldiered on.

“If I were to show you photos of her playing shortstop on an 8-and-under team, you could just see it, the determination, and that was in pretty much all she did,” said her father Burr, soft-spoken but matter-of-fact about his baby girl and her willingness to fail forward. “Academics, she was always at the top.”

A business management major with a job already secured back where her parents live near Bountiful, Utah, Berk is a regular on the C-USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll.

“It’s a funny thing about that: she studied hard for the ACT and went back and improved her scores,” Burr said. “She improved so much that the ACT people said they felt like she was cheating. I said, ‘You don’t understand who you’re saying that about.’ She just really wanted to improve, and she worked to do that, especially in the reading and comprehension part.”

What’s been hard for Berkley to comprehend since the spring of 2018 was how a player who’d always been the first- or second-best player on her high school and travel ball title teams suddenly couldn’t get on the field due to injuries.

“I had to adapt to my role on the bench and stay up for the team as much as I could,” she said. “After my first injury it was difficult for me to stay positive; it’s something I had to work at. My dad reminded me that bones will heal, and that I’ve got to continue making memories even though I’m not on the field.”

“Our team motto from the time of the tornado has been ‘resilient,’ and that describes Berkley her last four years,” said Morgan Turkoly; the team is 8-1, won a share of the C-USA regular-season title and swept the league tournament since losing their home park to the April 25 tornado in Ruston.

Morgan and Berk decided to become roomies after their unofficial visits to Tech in 2015; they still are. Turkoly is the 2018 C-USA Player of the Year and holds the current single-season runs-scored program and CUSA record with 67 this season. While Turkoly has played and played well, her bestie has been rooting when she’s not been playing.

“She’s dealt with more than anyone else on the team as far as injuries,” Morgan said. “Whether on the field or on the bench, she’s just as big a part of this team as anybody. She’s helped us all four years see the kind of path we wanted to go on by knowing what her role was depending on the situation. That defines her character and her passion for the game, to stick with it through anything. When we see that, it drives us. By giving it her all, she motivates us.”

Berk’s second hand injury was just “the worst luck,” Morgan said, and the two “talked through it. She had to dig herself out of a difficult time.

“She wasn’t happy, obviously,” Morgan said. “It’s hard to watch someone else take your spot. But never was she anything but encouraging to whoever took her place in the lineup.”

“You’re there to be a part of the team,” is what Burr told her. “You work through the adversity. This is going to make you stronger and the team stronger, is basically how I tried to encourage her. We still made our trips we’d planned when we could. It’s been tough for us too.

“But we’re proud of her,” Burr said, also speaking for Shannon, his wife and Berk’s mom. “We knew she had a good work ethic from when she was young. She’s always had a team-first attitude. When you’re not able to contribute on the field, you’ve still got to find a place to be a part of the team. We love her for her effort; it speaks well for her going on from here.”

She had to learn effort early. Her big brother Blake was once ranked worldwide because of his Call of Duty skills. He’d make little sis play and of course destroy her.

“She had to practice to get better, and actually she’s really good; she even plays online,” Morgan said, and then she laughed. “She tries to get me to play but I could not be more uninterested.”

“When they have a release date for a new game,” Berk said, “I’m typically on top of that.”

It’s hard to get injured playing those. But being fast and reacting quickly helps there and on the softball field. Berk proved it down the stretch with a couple of huge defensive plays at first on bullets to both her left and to her right, especially the play that protected a 5-4 lead against Marshall in Game 2 of the C-USA Tournament that Tech swept.

“Pretty good shots,” she said.

And she was 3-for-4 and knocked in four runs in the season-ending series at Southern Miss that the Techsters won to claim a share of the league title.

“Gotta be ready when it’s your turn,” Burr said.

“Berk is what a true team player is about,” said associate A.D./Communications Malcolm Butler, who’s covered just about every game of her career. “She’s never allowed injuries to put a damper on her ability to contribute to her team. She’s earned my respect for the way she’s handled her entire career at Louisiana Tech.”

Funny game. Injuries taketh away, but injuries giveth too. And that’s what’s happened in Berkley’s situation. Now teammates are hurt and she finds herself at first base, a spot she’d never played until this year. Playing hurt, but playing.

“It’s pretty challenging,” she said. “But I have more confidence now. And I’m doing what I’ll miss the most: being in the infield taking grounders, being able to be on the field and take in the atmosphere of the game.”

“Adversity or not, she’s always been one to roll up her sleeves and get busy; that’s what’s allowed her, despite these injuries, to always be there as a starter or backup or bench player,” said Mark Montgomery, who, when he took the job at Tech, remembered her compact swing and work ethic from watching her when he was head coach at the University of Northern Colorado and she was a player at nearby Fossil Ridge in Fort Collins.

“I wanted to experience something new, is one of the reasons I wanted to come here,” Berk said. “That and the atmosphere. It’s been worth it.”

“She does her best to help this team win,” Montgomery said. “That’s the determined attitude. She’s going to give her best. She can’t do something with her right hand?; she’ll hit 20 with her left. Can’t use her upper body so much?; she’ll do stuff with her lower body. Everything and anything she can do to get better.”

And so, the Regional begins. Berk and the Lady Techsters, double champions and by any measure the makers of what’s been a joyous season, have earned an in-state opportunity to continue playing a game they love. The whole gang—and Berk, injured hand and extra glove and all—are once again called to duty.

“She’s who you want on the field, one of the kids most determined,” Montgomery said. “It doesn’t matter how big or how fast they are. They play with all their heart.”

“I’m more grateful than nervous,” Berkley said on the eve of the Regional. “With the injuries I’ve had to fight through, it’s awesome just being on the field.

“We have a chance,” she said, “because of how much we mean to each other and because of our drive to play, to finish this season out strong.”