Carew Giberson-Chen is the undoubted catalyst for the Interlake Saints softball team. She leads the team in several offensive categories and has been nearly flawless defensively in center field as well, putting outstanding range on display by running down balls in the gaps and keeping runners on notice of her dangerous throwing arm.

And she has done all of that after two years away from the softball diamond.

Giberson-Chen was dedicated to the game from fourth until eighth grade, playing select softball while also spending time taking on her other passion: horseback riding.

But with an increasingly intensive course-load as an International Baccalaureate student at Interlake, Giberson-Chen decided her freshman year to give-up her spikes and glove in favor of riding boots and a saddle.

“I was getting burned out,” Giberson-Chen said of the reason behind the switch. “I also really wanted to spend more time riding.”

So the past two years, one of the best softball players at Interlake, wasn’t.

But even without Giberson-Chen, the Saints were set at the top of the order with Chandler Smidt and Maddy Schiappa, a pair of dynamic offensive threats that led the team offensively.

As a senior, Schiappa hit .500 and stole 27 bases for the Saints. This season as a college freshman, she started 26 games and saw action in 43 contests for the University of Connecticut.

With Schiappa and Smidt both gone, the Interlake coaching staff thought they would have a glaring hole to fill at the top of their order, but they had also heard of an enticing option to replace their departed star.

“We heard she [Giberson-Chen] was good and fast,” Interlake coach Jesse Brown said. “But we also knew she had not played in two years.” Giberson-Chen also said she had some initial apprehension, uncertain of where and how she would fit in with her new team.

“At first, I was afraid I was going to be really bad,” Giberson-Chen said. “But it all came back really fast.” What came back, was a foundation of slap-hitting skills that the Interlake junior says she built during her final season of select softball.

In her final year of traveling-team softball, she also batted at the top of the order and was charged with setting the table by getting on base. Those skills have translated nicely to the high school game and it is evident in the statistics.

Giberson-Chen leads the Saints in most all offensive statistical rankings, including a .517 batting average, nine stolen bases, 23 runs scored and an on-base percentage of .582.

She has led the charge for Interlake, which heads into their 2A sub-district playoff match-up on Friday hoping to earn the top seed into the District III playoffs on May 20.

If Giberson-Chen’s hot-hitting and stellar defense continues, playoff opponents will join KingCo foes in hoping she again abandons the base paths for the riding trails.