Bat, pen both precious for UMass left fielder

It seems kind of ironic – a collegiate softball player majoring in journalism and English who wants to cover music instead of sports. But that is exactly the case with UMass junior Lauren Proctor.

The equation may seem a little more strange when one considers her pedigree. Her stepfather, Richard Restuccia, played professional for the Milwaukee Brewers before wear and tear on his shoulder forced him into retirement. But it’s not just Papa Proctor, however. Her mom is just as big a sportsaholic.

“They are sports nuts. I’ll give them a call and they’re saying, ‘Today we’re watching the Atlanta Braves and then we’re going to watch this sport and this sport,’” Proctor says. “And so I’ll be talking to them and my mom will be, ‘Yeaaaaaahhhhhhhhh. Home run!’” Proctor says.

Despite this overwhelming upbringing into the Wide World of Sports, Proctor thinks she would rather write about concerts and tattooed guitarists then sports games and athletes.

And she is grabbing her ambitions by the horns.

So far, she has already gotten her foot in the door with multiple music publications like Performer Magazine, a magazine for which she has a concentration on artists coming out of the area. But this 21-year-old likes to keep busy – so she spreads herself around. She also writes for www.talkofnewyork.com, a hip-hop site run by BET photographers which receives 104,000 unique visits a day. The site has allowed her to interview people like Tyrese, Clinton Sparks (Diddy’s DJ) and Frankie J.

Or how about Skope Magazine – an internationally circulated magazine that just got a deal to be distributed in Barnes and Noble.

She also writes promos for Existence Records, an electronic label out of Canada that just had a release featured on iTunes Canada, UK, and Japan, reaching Number eight on the Japanese charts.

But Proctor doesn’t stop there.

She is also in the process of starting an online music magazine called Thrill Music Mag. It will cover all musical genres and is set to launch Sept. 1. She says she has stories lined up with artists ranging from My Chemical Romance to Justin Timberlake and Amy Winehouse. The site will feature a section called ‘Tastemakers’ that will feature highlight artists who necessarily ‘chart-famous’.

“I love writing about music. I’ve always loved music and in high school I made it a point to find new bands before they got famous. I feel lucky that I’ve found something I truly enjoy so much,” she says. “My parents have definitely encouraged me to be a sports writer but I guess I feel a different calling with my life. I love sports and have really enjoyed playing, but just don’t necessarily see sports journalism in my future.”

No matter what kind of a career her future holds or what kind of doors her diploma opens, Lauren knows that right now she plays for UMass Softball – that’s all that matters. Her team just won the Atlantic 10 Championship for the 13th time in 14 years – and 19th overall – and the Minutewomen have no intention of stopping there.

It was announced during the NCAA softball selection show on ESPNews on Sunday that UMass will host the Regionals for the second year in a row. The Minutewomen are the No. 2 team in the Amherst Regional and will face No. 3 Rhode Island (33-20) at 4:30 p.m. The regional is double elimination and runs through Sunday.

“I think it took us a little while to get going and to figure some things out, which is natural. But, I would say, that we’re doing well,” Proctor says.

It didn’t take Proctor long to figure things out, as she was a key factor in the Minutwomen’s success from Day One.

Heading into the further depths of the season, she maintains a batting average of .367. Over the course of the season she racked up 33 runs, 54 hits, 40 RBIs and a .503 slugging percentage. She is the epitome of a solid player – though she does not lead the team in any of the aforementioned categories she is consistently in the top two or three and she will always come through in the clutch.

“LP is as timely as anybody,” Sortino says. “She’s probably one of our best hitters with runners in scoring position this year. She’s solid.”

Though Proctor’s 2006-07 numbers may jump off the stat sheet to the casual reader, they are still the result of the steady progress she made since first donning the maroon and white.

She started all 54 games of her freshman season, finishing fourth on the team – and ninth in the A-10 – with a .322 batting average. By the time the year was done she had accumulated 27 runs scored, 47 hits (including three home runs) and 31 RBIs. She also garnered a slugging percentage of .466 and an on-base percentage of .385.

She continued her excellence during her sophomore year, starting in all 57 games. She mustered a .364 batting average to accompany her 30 runs scored, 60 hits, 20 RBIs and a .419 on-base percentage. She also had a slugging percentage of .455.

Her outstanding numbers earned her the honor of being selected as a third-team ESPN The Magazine All-District, first-team NFCA All-Region, Atlantic 10 All-Tournament team, first-team Atlantic 10 All-Conference and Academics All-Conference.

Those types of accolades have the ability to make any player look down their nose at her peers – but not Lauren Proctor. Her goal is not to amount statistics or numbers that win her the attention of the who’s who of the sports world, but rather to perform well day-in and day-out and help her team.

“I would say that I work for the hopes of contributing to the team and hopefully the team will do well in the end, but those types of honors are just an added bonus,” she says. “It’s nice to get that recognition, so it’s just a bonus for all the work that happens.”

While the adjustment moving from the West Coast to the East Coast might pose difficulty for most young students, it was no problem for Proctor, who is used to uprooting and relocating.

Born in Phoenix, Ariz., she moved to Pismo Beach, Calif. After finishing her sophomore year of high school in the picturesque city of California, her family again upped and moved – this time to Redmond, Washington. After Lauren tossed her high school graduation cap into the air, her father’s job as a regional manager for a sprinkler company forced them to pack their bags and move to La Jolla, Calif.

Whether it was this constant relocating at such a young age or the company that met her at UMass, Proctor did a terrific job of adjusting from the laid-back atmosphere of California to New England.

“I think that move in the middle of high school really helped me embrace a new place and the team was amazingly welcoming,” she says. “[Coach Elaine Sortino] made a point to make sure that I understood that I would be a key player from the very beginning and it was a great transition.”

Where a young, aspiring college athlete chooses to attend school depends very heavily on the coach that is doing the recruiting and Proctor couldn’t be happier that Sortino sought her out.

During her recruitment, the two would talk on the phone for hours at a time. Proctor says her coach is truly interested in who her players are and really tries to understand them. Any thing they shared over the phone held true once Proctor arrived at UMass – nothing is fake with Sortino.

“The coach I talked to over the phone during my recruiting period is the same coach that has been here,” Proctor says.

Sortino is relentless on her players. She wants the very best out of everyone that sports a Minutewomen’s jersey and eats and drinks nothing but UMass Softball. And this legacy that gripped Proctor actually stretches throughout the United States.

“I talked to some other coaches and Jackie Joseph of Michigan State said, ‘She is legendary.’ She used that word, ‘legendary’ and that’s when I kind of realized, ‘You know what? She is,’ Proctor says. “She’s a great person, a great coach – I couldn’t ask for more.”

“She is tough on us, but I think it’s because she wants us to succeed,” she continues. “She has the belief that if you’re going to succeed in the classroom, you’ll also succeed on the field and so you have to bring your work ethic to every aspect of your life.”

It usually takes just the right coach to ease the initial blow of the college jump and Sortino did just that. But, of course, Proctor’s teammates deserve some of the credit.

All of the Minutewomen have formed a bond rare among sports teams nowadays. The ‘25 players, 25 cabs’ mentality of Red Sox teams from decades ago is nonexistent in the UMass clubhouse. It is no-pressure, low-key atmosphere where the girl at the locker next to yours is not just your teammate, but also your friend.

“It’s a great group of girls,” Proctor says. “We have a really healthy team culture where everyone’s friendly, everyone is really respectful. There’s not a lot of seniority issues. It’s really a model team – one of the best teams that I’ve ever played for.”

Oh, and did you know Lauren Proctor speaks Spanish? It’s true.

While growing up in Arizona, she had a nanny from Mexico City named Lupe. With Lupe knowing only Spanish, Proctor was brought up learning the language. When Lupe stopped working for the family, however, Proctor knowledge of Spanish depleted, so she became taking courses at UMass in order to pay homage to the person who helped raise her. In fact, she plans on getting a Spanish minor.

“It’s always come fairly easily and it’s something that I’m really passionate about. So, when you’re passionate about something doing the work for it never seems like work,” she says.

That equals a double major in journalism and English with a minor in Spanish. That will be a pretty impressive resume when applying to Oxford – yes, Oxford. Her dream is to go there for grad school for her Ph.D. and she plans to apply to become a Rhodes Scholar. She knows it is a longshot but that will not stop her from going for her dream.

In fact, she plans to get an early start by heading over to Trinity College at Oxford for part of the summer to study. While there she will probably indulge in a little traveling, and training and maybe even working with Softball UK.

But, whether she is learning Spanish in the U.S. or using American English in England or covering Nas for a living, Proctor is going to make noise with something other than a bat in her future. She will use the same diligence and hard work she does on the softball field to achieve whatever dreams lie within her grasp.