How Kylee Hanson Was The Brightest Softball Star In Week 1, Outside Her Own Dugout

— -- No one in college softball had a better week than Florida Atlantic's Kylee Hanson, even if she was the second-best pitcher in her own dugout.

Don't worry, it's an easy riddle to solve.

In this case, second-best is far from a slight. Plenty of people would apply it to almost any pitcher in Hanson's place, even if that pitcher happened to be Monica Abbott, Lisa Fernandez or Cat Osterman. To more than a few fans who followed the sport well before the current NCAA era, Florida Atlantic coach Joan Joyce is the greatest pitcher who ever lived.

When someone in your own dugout once struck out Ted Williams, everyone else is competing for second.

Which just means Hanson's coach could appreciate more than most the work that earned her junior pitching ace espnW's first national player of the week award of the 2016 season.

In her first start of the campaign, Hanson struck out 14 batters and beat Hofstra in a rematch of a pair of games played in last season's NCAA tournament regional. For an encore, she no-hit Tulsa a day later in her second start. To make sure she had the box score covered, she earned saves in shutout relief appearances against Penn State and Wright State. She didn't single-handedly lead Florida Atlantic to its first 5-0 start in more than a decade, but her right hand did about as much as one can in a weekend.

Her line in total: 17 1/3 innings pitched, 5 hits, 1 earned run, 27 strikeouts, 2 walks.

While not as high profile as another NCAA tournament rematch that took place elsewhere in the state this past weekend -- Florida beating Michigan in a rematch of the championship series -- Florida Atlantic's opening day contest against Hofstra offered little opportunity to ease into the season. Hanson stopped short of calling it a full-fledged rivalry, but the teams played four games a season ago, with Hanson in the circle for the final out when the Owls eliminated the Pride from the postseason.

Add the normal nervous energy of opening a season, and it became a big game.

A big game in which Hanson struck out seven of the first eight batters she faced.

"Those are the games I live for," Hanson said. "Those are the most fun for me, and I feel like it's the reason you play the game. It's a challenge, for sure, but I think that our team as a whole was equipped to handle it. We were really ready for that game. I'm not going to lie, I didn't mind that being my first start. That's a good way to start the season."

To follow with the second no-hitter of her career is impressive enough (and leaves her just over a hundred behind her coach's total in 15 seasons with the famed Stratford Brakettes), but it was even more impressive because it wasn't a carbon-copy performance. She struck out six batters against Tulsa, but the eye-catching number is 77, as in the number of pitches required to complete the game. Hanson's rise ball is an unforgettable visual sight and helped her rank 11th in the nation in strikeout rate as a sophomore. But the nature of that pitch is that it isn't often a strike if hitters can somehow resist the urge to swing. Yet against Tulsa, after earning a save earlier in the day, it didn't matter if batters wanted to chase or not.

"I was already warmed up, feeling good for the Tulsa game," Hanson said. "They were also a very well-disciplined team. They weren't chasing any junk, so I had to really mix in a lot of strikes."

Not just a thrower but a pitcher. Not just a starter but a closer.

For the season's opening week, Hanson was better than everyone but her coach.