Milton native Jenna Lotti knows how to pitch. A 2011 Endicott College grad and softball star, she broke the school’s pitching record, winning 62 games in her college career.
Lotti, 25, is out there pitching again, this time trying her hand as a singer-songwriter. Last spring she released her first album, “Tunnel Vision,” nine songs based on poetry she’d written. She and boyfriend-guitarist Chris Facey are creating another. She has played open mike shows, which have led to headlining gigs at venues in Boston and Cambridge.
Not bad for someone with no musical training. “I’d been singing my whole life, but not in front of anyone,” said Lotti, the stage name adapted from her family name, Bortolotti. “After college, I started my own YouTube channel doing cover songs of me singing to karaoke tracks.”
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She took guitar lessons in an adult class at Milton High School.
“I learned basic chords,” she said. “That’s how I write most of my songs.”
A turning point was in 2010, when her college team was in Florida and on impulse she entered a mock “American Idol” contest. She won, performing before hundreds of people.
The first album, with songs like “Red Line Love,” “Medicine,” and “Breathe,” is largely autobiographical, she said. Snippets can be heard at www.jennalotti.com. She and Facey did an East Coast tour to promote the album, which she said sold pretty well.
“But it’s like any independent artist,” said Lotti, who lives in Cambridge and is an interior designer for Ritz Associates. “It’s tough to sell a lot your first try. We’re not signed to any label and have no manager. It’s pretty much me trying to get out there, which can be hard.”
She joined a website called New England to Nashville, which helps find work for artists, and she has performed in Nashville, New York, and West Virginia, in addition to local gigs, including Dedham’s Paradise Café recently. She and Facey are also playing in the Milton Music Fest, on June 27-28.
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“Now I’m just working hard, trying to get better, taking one step at a time,” Lotti said. “I’m not sure what the future holds, but I’d love for this to be my life.”
Paul E. Kandarian can be reached at pkandarian@aol.com.