Among so many great athletes with different traits – what makes a standout great? “Lauren has two major attributes as a player: One, she has a great love for the game of fastpitch softball and two, she has the ability to play the game without fear. She is a very tough young lady,” said assistant coach Toby Garza.

Lauren, known as LC to most people, grew up in the San Jose/Santa Clara area, daughter to Cindy Convento and Robert Cole.

She was a multi-sport athlete in her teens, playing softball, volleyball, basketball, soccer, track, gymnastics, and swimming.

“In seventh grade I played goalie, rain was pouring, the perfect scenario for a Gatorade commercial, sweat in my face, the whole deal! I blocked three out of five penalty kicks, the last one with my forearm, and we won by one.”

“Lauren was always noticed by other players and parents as the girl who made that amazing play,” her mother recalls. “It is exciting to watch her in action, especially when the pressure is on.”

Lauren’s future with CSM began the day she met her soon-to-be coach, Nicole Borg, during one of her softball games at the Charlie Miguel Tournament at Mission College. “I saw her and another coach wearing blue…I was really excited, I didn’t know what to expect. It was the first time a scout had come to see me,” she remembers.

After the game, Borg approached Lauren and “she gave me her card, it was white and it said Nicole Borg, with a Bulldog on it to the right, it looked so official.”

“You have a lot of untapped potential,” said Borg.

“I told her to come and watch me the next time we played and there she was the next game, standing behind the backstop. I could see them while I played.”

Borg, recruiting out of her area, had one mission – to find a pitcher.

An infielder in high school; LC got the chance to work the hill for a few innings and show her skills.

After seeing Borg for a second time, Lauren ignored her friends and family after the game, walking directly toward her new fan and asked “So what’d you think?”

Borg, impressed with Lauren’s enthusiasm and enjoyment of the game, decided to make the offer.

“She was just an okay pitcher, but I knew she could play softball, and most importantly – she wanted to play,” said Borg.

The young coach, with four years under her belt at the time, recalls clearly “She lit up as if I’d just gave her the best news of her life, her eyes couldn’t get any bigger at that moment.”

Borg, also interested in third baseman Jennifer Americano, asked Lauren if she and her teammate would be interested in joining the Bulldogs after high school. “I don’t know what Jenn wants to do, but I know what I wanna do.”

It was the start of a unique two-year relationship between the two. A commitment deeper than just softball, a commitment to be the best pitcher and coach they could be.

Lauren’s decision was as hard as it could get for a 17-year-old high school senior. Venturing to a city she’d never heard of, gambling her future on a promise from a stranger who owed her nothing.

LC fell below a 2.0 GPA in her senior year, causing her to be ineligible to play the rest of her softball season. Yet her commitment to Borg was sincere and it showed from the start.

“I listened and bought into everything she said so I could be at her level, she said if I put everything in for her, then she’d put everything in for me.”

Borg recalls a conversation with Lauren just after she started at CSM. “She came in so happy and said ‘you don’t have any kids, so I’m gonna be your kid now and you’re gonna hang this in your refrigerator’.”

LC had scored a 98 percent in her first math test, a testament to her academic commitment. LC has been on the dean’s list every semester since she started college, now with a cumulative 3.8 GPA.

Lauren’s biggest challenge came when her dad, Robert, left the family the day before the start of her sophomore season.

“I was just numb, couldn’t feel anything, mentally I was just off.

Robert had been Lauren’s softball and soccer coach from an early age, as well as her biggest fan.

With the help of her friends, teammates, and coaches; Lauren managed to plow through and play her best season as a Bulldog. Starting fewer games than her freshman season, she went on to a 20-5 win-loss record during the regular season, starting on 25 of her 31 games played.

She came close to pitching three perfect games this year, tossing eight impressive shutouts, including a career-high nine strikeouts against Contra Costa College on Feb. 25. She led the Coast-North Conference with a 1.78 ERA on 172.3 innings pitched.

Yet, her sophomore season was more than just numbers; “it was mentally hard to balance it all.”

At the start of this year’s playoffs at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, her emotions got the better of her; she broke down right before her name was called for the official introduction.

Ken Zuvela, a long-known father figure, was in the stands, showing his support.

“I felt like this person who I looked up to, traveled all the way there to support me, yet my own dad couldn’t be there for me, I just broke down and cried.”

Assistant coach Dale Bassmann walked over to her and said: “That would make me mad, LC. Use that out there and channel it on the field.”

Lauren wiped her tears away and joined the lineup. “Something so powerful coming from Dale, it just helped so much.”

CSM was eliminated from the playoffs, though, after losing two straight games to Cosumnes River.

“After the game, I felt like everything else didn’t matter. I dropped everything for softball and now it was over.”

While Lauren’s softball career at CSM has come to a close, the memories she’s cultivated of her teammates and coaches is something never to be forgotten.

“Lauren’s a very sweet, caring person,” said teammate Morgan Elkins. “She’s just an overall competitor. If she gives up a hit, she’d be upset with herself and her next pitch would be just so much better.”

“She’s a perfectionist, she doesn’t settle for anything,” said teammate Alyssa Jepsen.

Lauren, a two-time First Team All-Conference player, was recently inducted in the CSM Softball Wall of Fame, joining the likes of Jamie Vanover (2004) and Michelle Tating (2007).

The wall of famer will join the Florida Tech Panthers for her junior season of collegiate softball.

Borg, with her usual straightforwardness, said to Lauren: “You could be really helpful; I want you to be my pitcher.”