AUBURN – At the first possible chance, Mary Lewis is off and running. Barreling full force toward second base, her brief trip inevitably ends with a head-first slide and a cloud of dust.

“I love that,” the junior St. Dom’s shortstop said. “It’s an adrenaline rush. You’re just going. Even when you see the ball come to second, you have to go to the backside (of the base).”

There’s nothing tentative about the Saints’ captain. Even with a bothersome hip injury, Lewis rarely goes half speed. She’s become a catalyst for a relatively young St. Dom’s squad.

“She’s just so dominant,” said St. Dom’s coach Brian Kay, who also has Lewis on his field hockey team. “She loves to get dirty. She’s not afraid to be aggressive. If you get her on base, things are going to happen. More than likely, she’s going to score a run for you.”

Through the first 10 games, Lewis is batting .477 with 21 hits and 26 runs scored. Against Cape Elizabeth on Wednesday, Lewis reached base on a bunt and walked twice. She stole four bases and scored two runs.

“She likes to challenge the catchers,” said Kay, who recalled a game in Florida last month where Lewis stole second before the opposition even realized she was running. “It’s a certain person that can do that. She knows when she can go and when she can’t.”

She doesn’t just make thing happen on the bases. She’s a vocal leader. She told her teammates that her goal this season was to give her all for the team, not for herself. She’s a threat at the plate and one of the best fielders on the team. She possesses a great glove and a potent throwing arm.

Lewis never played softball until she was 13. She had played Little League baseball with her brothers Benjamin and Peter. When she first tried softball, it immediately became her passion.

“When I get out there, it’s a different mentality completely,” said Lewis. “I go out there, and anything that happened in the day, good or bad, I can just forget. I can be out there and look at everybody and realize this is where I want to be.”

While being a standout field hockey player for the Saints last fall, Lewis was also playing fall softball. She made a difficult choice to give up basketball this past winter. She used the time to give her ailing hip some attention, but she also had softball practices and doubleheaders on weekends. That was in addition to two fitness workouts a week. So, springtime is actually her down time.

“This is go play high school ball and play my heart out and play with a bunch of girls that I love to play with,” Lewis said. “Then the weekend after states, I have my first summer tournament.”

She’s hoping to play softball in college. She has three schools in mind – the University of Central Florida, Fairfield and Holy Cross. At the latter two, she might play field hockey, as well.

The way Lewis plays full tilt, you’d hardly know about her hip, which she injured in a collision during a field hockey game. Doctor’s first thought it was just a muscle strain, but later realized that her hip had been out of alignment for five weeks. She hurt it again during the winter, but has been able to play without it slowing her down this year. She knows what her limits are, but she’s not afraid to push it a little.

“I still give it a go,” she says. “It’s getting better slowly. It stays in place now. It’s just me being conscious of going too far and not overplaying. It’s about going exactly as far as what I need to do.”