Unless you knew Callista Balko she’ might be the last player you’d identify as the catcher of Arizona’s NCAA champion softball team.
She just doesn’t fit the image.
Most of us think of a catcher as a bit of a clodhopper, not thin and graceful and quick. The Wildcats’ lissome 5-9 junior backstop may not look the part but she’s as tough as the leather in her catcher’s mitt and even more durable.
Callista caught every pitch of every inning in a 65-game schedule leading to the national title last season. That’s roughly 1,637 batters in 434 innings and 690 putouts. And she was charged with only two passed balls.
She says she bears the scars of a rather brutish position. “I have a few fat fingers,” she said, adding with a chuckle, “and I certainly don’t have long nails.” And, she claims to have a permanently swollen index finger on the left (glove) hand she uses to catch the ball. And, “during the season my hand is kind of purple,” she added.
Just the same, Balko loves being a catcher, the hardest-working position on any ball team. Mucking around in the dirt for seven innings or more -- she caught 16 double-headers last year -- is her idea of fun. “I love it,” she said, “and if I were resting on the bench I wouldn’t be happy. I’d want to be on the field, behind the plate.”
Coach Mike Candrea, who has guided the Wildcats to seven NCAA championships, doesn’t hesitate when asked about the strength of his catcher. “It’s Callista’s quickness,” he said. “And her durability. We saw how valuable she is last season when she caught every game.”
But Balko’s biggest moment came when she singled off Cat Osterman -- Arizona’s only hit of the game -- to help beat Texas, 2-0, in the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma city.
Balko batted .270 for the season, including 13 home runs. She hit five dingers the previous year, as a freshman, and credited Candrea with her improvement at the plate. “I struggled that first year. Coach worked with me a lot. We tweaked my swing and lengthened my stance to cut down on the stride,” she said.
Candrea notes, “We also worked on her vision at bat so that she could pick up the ball’s trajectory more quickly.”
A graduate of Canyon Del Oro High School in Tucson, Callista is the daughter of Scott and Vicki Balko. Her dad is retired from the Navy and her mom teaches piano. Her own piano career sort of went ker-plunk, she said. “I love music and I tried piano and violin,” she said, “but once I took up softball, I had more fun playing in the dirt.”
Off the field, Balko is community-minded. She took part in the “Giving Tree” project, collecting funds for needy children at Christmas time. She worked on the effort with track and field athlete Marquita Taylor and Phoebe Chalk, assistant director of athletics for community relations and the Jim Click Hall of Champions.
“We raised $300, about double what we raised the year before, and were able to get four or five Christmas gifts each for eight kids,” Balko said. “It was a great feeling to be able to do that.”
University of Arizona athletes are noted for that kind of work in the community, and Balko said it’s part of being a Wildcat. “Our school has so much tradition,” she said. “I love that. Around McKale Center, we who participate in athletics are very tight. Everything is in one building and that enables us -- forces us, in fact -- to communicate. We’re all one team and we get along great.”
She also appreciates the support of the townsfolk. “Our fans in softball are the best,” she said. “Granted, they like winners, but they are always there yelling for us, and our attendance is awesome.”
Balko is a student of the science of catching and, like most catchers, is a sociable sort. She enjoys talking to opposing hitters. “Yeah, I’m a different person on the field -- I talk a lot,” she laughed. “I try to get in the hitter’s head. Not in a mean way, of course. But chatting with the batter is part of the game. And it’s fun.”
Catchers form a special bond with the pitcher and that’s something else Balko enjoys about the position. “The pitcher needs to trust you, and you need to help her with her confidence,” she said.
“Catching is a control-freak position. I’m not that way at all, off the field. You’d think a person would have to be, but I’m not.”
Callista got to know Wildcat pitching great Alicia Hollowell quite well last season. Alicia pitched 252-plus innings in 41 appearances and finished with a 32-5 record. “I knew her like the back of my hand,” Balko said.
That would be her better-looking hand, not the purple one with “fat fingers.”
