Niki Williams laughs shyly and scoffs at the idea that she’s moved into “big time” status for the Washington softball team.

But after what she did in Palm Springs two weeks ago, it’s not that big of a stretch. Williams won National Player of the Week after going 10-for-17 with four home runs and 11 RBI in the five-game Cathedral City Classic, the highest point yet of a hot streak that began last spring at the Women’s College World Series.

Williams leads the No. 1 Huskies (17-1) into their first-ever night game this evening against Miami (OH) at Husky Softball Stadium, the first game of the four-day Husky Softball Classic and UW’s first home game of the season.

The sophomore from Mission Viejo, Calif., is second on the team, with a .434 batting average, and has hit six home runs to go along with 19 RBI. She hit five home runs all of last season.

And it was her struggles at the plate last season — her postseason push moved her average to .288 by the end of the year — that spurred a newfound work ethic and confidence in the batter’s box this year.

Williams watched part of UW’s conference season from the bench, somewhere she’d never been before. So she started taking extra batting practice — something that just hadn’t occurred to her before — determined not to spend any more time sitting out.

“I think she really didn’t know any different,” UW head coach Heather Tarr said. “She looked around her and she saw a whole bunch of people on her team who work hard through tough times. Watching the older people on the team work hard and work through struggles, that’s really all she knew how to do, so she started working extra, coming to hit with extra live batting, I think that really kind of gave her a lot of confidence.”

The bench turned out to be exactly what she needed.

“I definitely wasn’t used to that,” Williams said. “I got to see things from a different point of view. You’ve got to work harder and take extra cuts.”

That’s when things picked up again. Williams was a key cog in UW’s offensive onslaught at the World Series last season, setting the WCWS record for RBI with 10, seven of those coming in one game against Georgia when she hit a grand slam and a three-run homer.

“You can tell when players start to get over that hump, and they stop doubting themselves, and they start realizing there’s a reason they’re here,” Tarr said. “They wouldn’t be here if they weren’t good enough to compete at this level.”

Williams is just one part of a UW offense that has been unstoppable all season, outscoring its opponents 131-33 through the first 18 games of the season. Washington has already hit 29 home runs after hitting 51 all of last season. And the Huskies have five regular players hitting .314 or higher, including Williams and Jenn Salling (.458) above the .400 mark.

Williams may be the most pleasant surprise, though – so much so that Tarr played her in the outfield for the first time in Palm Springs, a product of UW’s depth and its need to keep Williams’ bat in the lineup.

“It’s a bit uncomfortable,” Williams said. “I’ve been taking extra fly balls, extra do-or-dies. It’s going to be OK. It’s just because we have so many good hitters.”

Suddenly, she’s one of the best.

Reach Sports Editor Christian Caple at sports@dailyuw.com.