It isn't a new thought, but the best ones often are not. For each new generation, it offers new inspiration.

"The game doesn't know who is supposed to win," UCF junior pitcher Shelby Turnier said of her sport. "The game of softball doesn't know that Minnesota is supposed to win the game."

Or Missouri. Or South Carolina.

The game doesn't know who Turnier is when she steps into the circle. It doesn't know who she is supposed to be.

People who play the game? They don't have the luxury of such ignorance.

A super regional team a season ago, Minnesota was unbeaten and ranked No. 12 when Turnier threw a two-hit shutout and struck out 12 batters in a win against the Gophers over the weekend. One of the seeded teams in the NCAA tournament a season ago and returning many of the key players from that roster, Missouri was ranked No. 18 when Turnier shut down and shut out the Tigers a day earlier on one hit, one walk and nine strikeouts in a 1-0 win.

South Carolina met its match earlier in the week. On that team's home field in Columbia, South Carolina, Turnier struck out 11 batters and allowed one earned run in a complete-game win.

All told, espnW's national player of the week allowed just one earned run and eight hits and struck out 32 batters in 21 innings against three opponents all but sure to be NCAA tournament participants and with aspirations to be much more.

The junior noted she can usually tell from the way the ball moves and sounds in warm-ups whether her curve and rise, her go-to pitches, are on for a given day. There was a lot of moving and a lot of popping in the bullpen a week ago.

"There are times when my go-to pitches maybe aren't spot-on, so I have to rely on other pitches in my arsenal," Turnier said. "But my go-to pitches were like perfect last week, and I think that's what really set the tone for the rest of my pitching."

Hers isn't newfound success. She was good as a freshman and finished that season with a 14-7 record, a 2.33 ERA and decent strikeout numbers. But she emerged a season ago when she finished with a 20-6 record, a 1.43 ERA and 206 strikeouts in 156 innings.

Some of the improvement in the strikeout rate stems from increased comfort with the rise ball. She relied more on her curve and a screwball in high school, but facing college hitters, she realized she needed to be able to challenge them on a north-south plane too.

But part of the improvement was also the comfort of experience. After pitching against the likes of Alabama, Florida and Notre Dame a season ago with mixed results, she has already dealt with the kind of moments she faced a week ago.

"One mistake, one missed pitch, one ball that's left a centimeter on the plate has potential to be a run," Turnier said. "So I think when we're playing other teams that maybe aren't as strong hitting as Minnesota and Missouri and teams like that that are great teams, you can kind of get away with lapsing one or two pitches in an inning. But when you're playing big teams like that, you have to make sure that you're focused the entire seven innings, every single pitch."

More than a few coaches stymied by UCF may wonder if one mistake in recruiting cost them a game. Turnier is one half of what looks early in the season like the best pair of aces outside of the five major conferences. Paired with senior Mackenzie Audas, who beat Arkansas last week and has yet to allow an earned run this season, the two pitchers give UCF the same fearsome look that South Alabama had a season ago as it rose in the rankings with Hannah Campbell and Farish Beard. Well, not quite the same look. Unlike the South Alabama pair of a season ago, both Turnier and Audas are listed at 5-foot-5, considerably shorter than the prototypical Division I ace.

"Compared to other pitchers, we're small girls," Turnier said. "I think that, in a way, that works to our advantage. I like people underestimating me because then it's that much sweeter when you win or when you overcome something or stuff like that. I think when we were getting recruited, I definitely think that we were overlooked by some of the bigger schools. But I feel like that's changing more and more over the years because of pitchers like myself and Mackenzie, who come out here and perform well. We're small, and we perform well against these top-25 teams.

"Now coaches are looking at us like, 'Wow, small girls can throw the ball and pitch well.'"

After all, the game, she might point out, doesn't know how tall you are.