Saluki center fielder Kalyn Harker strives for perfection
03/09/2015 | 12:00:00 | DawgTracker
By John Lock
SIUSalukis.com
WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - Saluki senior center fielder Kalyn Harker has been a perfectionist as long as she can remember. Even in kindergarten, she remembers getting mad if she didn't have perfect grades.
"I got a B in fifth grade," Harker said. "It was the worst day of my life."
All she wanted to do from the age of five was play college softball. She would travel in the summer to play in front of college coaches; and if she made a mistake, the perfectionism deep inside would taunt her.
"I'm never going to play college softball!" she would think to herself.
SIU head coach Kerri Blaylock thought otherwise. She needed an outfielder with speed, found out Harker's dad was an SIU alumnus, and secured a commitment from one of the best outfielders in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Parker also considered Purdue, but a visit to Carbondale changed her mind.
"It was very homey; that's what I loved the most," Harker said. "It was like an immediate family that I was brought into. They've been there for me through a lot, from a broken hand to kidney stones to stitches in my chin."
Her lefty bat provided an immediate spark for the Salukis in 2012, hitting .244 and starting 27 games. Harker, who throws and writes right-handed, started batting left-handed when she was 12 and kept perfecting it, going from a strictly slap-bunting leadoff hitter to a well-rounded batter who hit .313 for SIU last year with 10 doubles.
"She's a triple threat," Blaylock said. "She can slap; she can hit the gaps; and she has home run power."
Harker split time in left field as a freshman before filling some big shoes her sophomore year--she took over center field from 2012 MVC Player of the Year Mallory Duran. And Harker lived up to the long line of great SIU center fielders; she led the team with a .373 batting average in MVC games and earned second-team All-Conference honors after the year.
"I just sat back and tried to pick things up from her," Harker said. "Coming into my sophomore year when I had to play center field, I had a better grasp of what she did to be successful and what I needed to be doing to be successful for the program. Playing left field was just a bonus for me, and it helped with the transition into center field as a sophomore."
For someone who played shortstop most of her life, Harker has made the outfield transition seem smooth. In three-plus years in the Saluki outfield, Harker has made just two errors--almost perfect. She has earned two Academic All-MVC awards and has a 4.0 in biological sciences--perfect.
"(Her perfectionism) is over the top," Blaylock said. "She's probably one of the most perfectionist kids I've ever been around. We joke with her about it, and she's relaxed a little bit about it."
She will be staying in Carbondale next year as she enters the SIU School of Medicine Physician Assistant program. But first there are big plans for her senior year in a Saluki uniform.
"I'm just trying to be better than last year," Harker said. "It's going to be crazy when it's over because this is all I've ever known. Our big goal is to win conference and go to a regional, to get a ring."
