South City softball legend comes home

South City’s first baseman is Bergesen’s younger sister Maggie, and as the senior defender limped across the infield to the Warriors’ third-base dugout, the two sisters set aside their typical sibling chiding and shared an emotional hug near the coach’s box.

“Me and my sister have a great relationship,” Karizma Bergesen said. “We were expecting to come out here and have fun. ... We always make some comments to each other. Funny, nice, kind of mean — sisterly comments. But she’s still my little sister, so I’ve got to make sure she’s OK.”

For Karizma Bergesen, Monday’s game marked a homecoming to her alma mater, where she was part of a storied era of South City girls’ athletics.

A 2019 graduate from South San Francisco High School, Bergesen was a prolific two-sport athlete. On the basketball court, she joined head coach Paul Carion’s team as a junior in the midst of a 41-game winning streak in Peninsula Athletic League North Division play, and in her first season with the team was part of the 2017-18 Central Coast Section Division III championship run, the only CCS title in the history of the program.

Bergesen’s forte, however, was softball. A four-year varsity shortstop, she led a renaissance at South City not matched before or since. She was a pillar of the 2017 and ’18 teams to capture back-to-back PAL Ocean Division championships, the first two PAL titles in program history, and led the Warriors to the CCS playoffs three straight years.

“She was dirty every game,” former South City head coach Noelle Nelson said, “and as she got older she was an example to the younger players how to play the sport. ... She was a big piece of the glue of that team.”

So, it was fitting Bergesen was serving as Mercy-Burlingame’s interim head coach Monday.

There were three Bergesen ladies at South City’s on-campus softball field for the key PAL Lake Division softball matchup. Karizma and Maggie’s mother Kim is South City’s official scorekeeper. In fact, the reason why there are records of Karizma Bergesen’s varsity days — a .571 career batting average, including a remarkable slash line her senior year of .558/.602/1.207 with 11 doubles, three triples, 11 home runs and 30 RBIs — is because Kim has been serving as the team’s scorekeeper since Karizma Bergesen’s freshman year.

After graduating in 2019, Bergesen was one of three South City players off her senior roster to play NCAA Division I college softball. Two transferred from College of San Mateo, with Lafu Malepeai currently a junior at Sacramento State, and Hailey Meisenbach a senior at Cal Poly. Michelle Hara, a freshman with the 2019 Warriors, is also a junior transfer out of CSM, now at the NAIA program at Southern Oregon University.

Bergesen landed at San Jose State straight out of high school. Through three seasons, she recorded a .297 career batting average for the Spartans, while hitting a program record three home runs in one game at University of Nevada-Reno in 2022. In 2024, she transferred to Boise State, where hit .269 as senior, finishing her career with the Broncos advancing to the finals of the Mountain West Conference Softball Championship tournament. Boise State finished runner-up in the tourney, with Bergesen batting .381 (8 for 21) through the team’s eight-game run.

“I broke that record, so that was awesome,” Bergesen said. “I’m pretty proud of it, and especially ending in Boise, I ended with a great team, a great coaching staff.”

Bergesen said she is still hoping to continue her softball career overseas. She is currently in her first year as a varsity coach, serving as an assistant on head coach Erik Vorsatz’s staff. She earned a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies, and is currently studying back at San Jose State, working on a second degree in civil engineering.

Landing at Mercy this season might be a stroke of destiny. Just as Bergesen emerged at South City as a wunderkind shortstop her freshman year, Mercy is suddenly being impacted by standout freshman shortstop McKenna Fua. While Fua has an extensive travel softball background playing with Firecrackers Leles Fasetpitch Softball based in Sacramento, Bergesen hadn’t heard of the freshman until she arrived at Mercy.

They first met when Fua played flag football in the fall, a team also coached by Vorsatz and Bergesen.

“She played flag football, and that’s how Coach Erik found out about her because he also coaches flag football,” Bergesen said. “But we had two freshmen that actually came out. We were surprised. It was her and [Vivianna Reyes]. We didn’t know they were coming and now they’re our middle infielders.”

The beginnings of the varsity careers of Bergesen and Fua are uncanny. Through her first 13 games as a freshman in 2016, Bergesen hit .467 (21 for 45) with three home runs and two four-hit games. Through Mercy’s first 13 games this season, Fua is batting .412 (14 for 34) with two home runs and two four-hit games.