ORONO – Ambassador might not be the actual title she carries with her when she finally leaves the University of Maine, but for those who know Deb Smith, that is what she will be.

Wherever she goes, she will represent the best and brightest Maine has to offer.

It is not just that she is one of the softball team’s top players or one of the best in the North Atlantic Conference. It is that she is an outstanding student-athlete. Athletically, she shines in the circle and at the plate. In class, she has maintained honor grades four years and was recently recognized as one of the school’s top academic student-athletes.

Through this week, Smith led the NAC in doubles, had the third-highest batting average at .426, and was fourth in home runs with four. As a pitcher, she was second with a .722 winning percentage, was fourth in earned run average at 1.51 and strikeouts per seven innings at 4.9, and tied for third with one save.

For the week of April 24, Smith was NAC Player of the Week. She led Maine starters in slugging percentage at .643, and is the team’s top pitcher. Coach Janet Anderson relies on Smith to get Maine out of any jam.

“Basically, she’s our go-to-it person, and has been the last two years,” Anderson said. “She has done everything we have asked her to do.”

The senior co-captain is a team leader, an excellent role model for those who follow. “She’s done so much for this program in terms of her time here at this university,” Anderson said. When Smith leaves the Orono campus, “she will show people exactly what Maine is all about.”

But stats aside, it the student who plans a career in sports medicine who draws the most praise. Smith was accepted at three graduate schools. She plans to study at Maine next fall, seeing it as an opportunity to “take a little time off” and focus her attention elsewhere.

Asked what she would like to be remembered for, Smith said it would be the contribution she made to the softball program and to the school as a whole. She worked hard to maintain good grades. She will receive her bachelor of science degree in physical education with a specialty in health fitness and athletic training, and she hopes to become a high school athletic trainer.

Were Smith to address freshmen entering Maine, she would try to help them understand that the first year, if they play a sport, will be “a very hectic one.”

She would want them to know, if they are serious about their studies and their sport, they won’t have much of a social life. But that “is by choice.”

And she would want them to know, if they have the ability and the opportunity, they could do even more than she did. It all depends on commitment.

That character trait is something this young lady from Munnsville, N.Y., obviously learned from Dale and Joanne, her parents.

I met Mrs. Smith Friday afternoon. She had just completed a nine-hour drive to Lengyel Field, something she does on a regular basis. In four years, the Smiths have missed just a few games.

“We aren’t able to stay the full two weeks when they were in Flordia,” Mrs. Smith. “We usually make 10 days. But those are the only ones we miss.”

The family bought a new van in February. Give or take a few hundred around-town miles, it has already passed the 9,000-mile mark following Maine softball.

Deb gave her mother something to cheer about Friday, pitching a 5-0 shutout over Drexel.

Defensively, she threw 97 pitches at 26 batters in seven innings, giving up two hits, two walks, and striking out six.

Offensively, Maine’s No. 3 batter singled and scored in the first inning, and doubled, driving in a run in the fifth.

From her perspective, however, it wasn’t the prettiest of wins.

In fact, she was a bit frustrated after giving up her first walk and first hit in the second inning, and another of each in the third. A wild pitch advancing a runner didn’t make her happy, either.

So, what did she do about it? She bore down like heck in the fourth, facing only three batters. They made contact with the ball, but didn’t get to first.

And, between innings, she kept throwing. Not a bad idea, considering how cold it was.

Deb Smith is a fun pitcher to watch. She’s a speedy windmiller who emits a nearly indescribable sound when she’s warming up – sort of a cross between an “ehhhh” and a “mouwaah,” but loud enough to let you know she means business.

The Drexel players thought so. They didn’t play badly at all, they told each other. She was just good. Good enough, perhaps, that her season won’t end too soon.

Mom and Dad are ready to go anywhere to watch their daughter compete in post-season play. She hopes to offer them that opportunity.