So much for that developing offense. The Kentucky softball team blasted that misconception in its first two weeks of play.Off to the best start in school history (8-2) and fresh off a tournament championship in the Garnett and Gold Tournament in Tallahassee, Fla., Kentucky has experienced a bit of a surprising offensive outburst in its first two weeks of play. UK is hitting .298 as a team and averaging 6.3 runs per game, well above its batting average of .273 and 3.6 runs per game of a year ago. The improvement has taken place without the best offensive player in program history, Molly Johnson, who graduated after last season.”The cool thing about our offense right now is we’re getting contributions from so many different people, from returners to new kids,” head coach Rachel Lawson said. “(Brittany) Cervantes was on fire this past weekend and (Samantha) DeMartine was incredible the first weekend, so it’s pretty cool because a lot of different people are stepping up.”The contributions have been wide ranging in experience and lineup order. Senior catcher Megan Yocke has embraced her new role as the leadoff hitter and is hitting .296 with two home runs and two RBI. Senior infielder Samantha DeMartine, tabbed as the most improved player in the offseason, is off to a .393 start. Sophomore shortstop Kara Dill, faced with the unenviable task of replacing Johnson at shortstop, is filling in just fine with a .333 average (Lawson has also been very impressed with her defensive effort).But if you’re looking for the biggest reason in UK’s offense development, look no further than slugger Brittany Cervantes. Named Southeastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday, Cervantes is hitting .467 on the year with four home runs, four doubles, 13 RBI and 13 runs.”The biggest thing is she is so mature up to bat that she is able to adjust so much faster,” Lawson said. “She is very objective right now. She doesn’t get outside of her game plan very often and it is really hard to fool her, so the mental part of her game has just improved light years. Because of that she has really stayed steady in the box and really is a major reason we are doing so well right now.”Cervantes sparked UK’s championship in Florida this weekend with an offensive eruption. The junior belted home runs in three consecutive at-bats in wins over Georgia Southern and Florida State. The Chatsworth, Calif., native admitted a little disappointment when she had to settle for just a single in her attempt for four straight round trippers on Sunday against Florida State.”I haven’t done anything like that in my career,” said Cervantes, a third baseman. “My high school didn’t have a fence, so we always had to run out a home run. I had a lot of triples but I didn’t have that many home runs.”Ironically, home runs have defined Cervantes’ college career, maybe to a point where it’s held her back. Already ranked third on UK’s career home run chart, Cervantes admitted to being an all-or-nothing hitter in her first two seasons in college. Often times she would head to the plate with the mentality to swing as hard as she could regardless of the situation and count.”My freshman year and last year I just wanted to swing for the fences,” Cervantes said. This year, Cervantes has evolved as a hitter. Instead of trying to belt one out of the park every time, she’s become more focused on making contact. Even so, with better pitch selection and an offseason of strengthening and conditioning, her power numbers have benefited from it. “My mentality going to bat is a lot better,” Cervantes said. “I have a lot more confidence in myself and I have worked on certain pitches that I struggled with for the past two years.”On a weekend where Cervantes routinely circled the bases, it was a 12-pitch single late in the Florida State game that impressed Lawson the most. Needing an insurance run in the sixth inning with runners on second and third, Cervantes stayed alive through a full-count battle until she finally got a pitch she could hit.Cervantes singled up the middle to bring in another run, completing a 4-for-4, three-RBI day.”She used to get so enraged that she wanted to hit the ball 400 feet, which would have caused her to do something on a pitch that normally isn’t a good pitch for her to hit over the fence,” Lawson said. “I think that shows just how mature she has become because she was able to stay in that at-bat for as many pitches as she did and she never did the wrong thing in that at-bat. Whatever pitch was thrown, she did the appropriate thing, whether it was foul it off backwards, foul it to the right or rip it into our dugout. Whatever the case was, she picked the correct thing to do each time until she really got something she could drive.”Expecting Cervantes to continue her torrid pace would be unreasonable, but Cervantes’ production in the middle of the lineup will be critical in the team’s success this season. For a program that’s been historically light on power, Cervantes now provides the perfect combo of hitter’s mentality with home run power.The mixture keeps the other team honest and makes the rest of the order better.”The great thing about it is it forces people to pitch to the top two people in the order,” Lawson said. “Every time she gets up to bat I know something good is going to happen.  Having her in the middle of the order has been everything to us this season.”