It’s hard, if not impossible, to tell Cathedral High School’s Marty Lewis to stay off the field for her senior softball season.

Approximately three months after having surgery to repair torn cartilage in her knee, Lewis manned her position at shortstop for Cathedral’s home opener against Parklane Academy Tuesday night. In the top of the sixth inning, Lewis ranged to her left and fielded a ground ball, raced to the bag herself and hummed the ball to first to turn a double play. She said in the heat of the game all she thought about was keeping her team in the game, down 7-4.

Then, a sharp pain sent an unfriendly reminder of her condition, and she hobbled back to her position.

Lewis has been cleared by doctors to play and has undergone rehabilitation, but the Cathedral senior said she still feels like she is not playing at 100 percent.

“It’s healed but I have to ease back into sports,” Lewis said. “Whenever I run, I have to straighten (my knee) out, because it hurts to put weight on it when I bend it.”

Lewis missed a summer of tournaments with her travel ball squad, the Ferriday Gators, but was cleared to play in time for the start of Cathedral’s season. Head coach Gary Blackwell said he’s glad to see one of his two seniors back on the diamond, even if her contributions are temporarily limited to playing defense.

“It’s great to have Marty back in the field, because she can make those plays,” Blackwell said in reference to the double play. “We have different people DH for her. We hope to get her back in the lineup (by playoffs). She still can’t run full blast.”

Though the playoffs seem a long way off — although Lewis hopes she can hit and run as soon as next week — Cathedral athletic trainer Dorothy Garrity said no amount of time is too long to heal a surgically repaired joint.

Garrity said the ideal situation would be to rest the knee through spring, which might cause her to miss basketball and the beginning of tennis season.

“She’s playing through it, and all we can do is ice it every night,” Garrity said. “You can let her work through it and she knows her limitations.”

After missing last season with an ankle injury, rest is the last thing on Lewis’ mind.

“(Cathedral) made it to the state tournament last year,” Lewis said. “I couldn’t play because of my ankle surgery, but I think we could definitely do it again.”

The irony of Lewis’ situation is that her ankle and knee injuries are actually connected. Lewis said doctors hypothesized the cartilage damage in her knee was from compensating for her bad ankle, which all stems from what she said is a chronic cartilage disorder.

Now, the three-sport athlete said she is going through some grueling physical therapy: two day weekly of squats, jogging and jumping to stress and strengthen her joints.

All of this seems secondary to Lewis, who is looking forward to one last run with her teammate and fellow senior Elizabeth Smith.

“(Elizabeth and I) are good friends and we try to be good leaders for the team,” Lewis said. “I can’t pitch yet, but I try to help her in the field the best I can and back her up when she’s struggling.”

Early in Cathedral’s game against Parklane, Lewis covered second on a stolen base. The Parklane base runner slid hard and late into the base, which Lewis said spooked her, causing her to fall on top of the sliding runner to protect her knee from buckling.

Despite the early scare, Lewis said her injury doesn’t cross her mind when she’s trying to make a play.

“(During the unassisted double play) I had in my head, ‘I hope I can turn this since I made an error. If I made a double play it would really put us back in the game right now.”