For the past four years, Hopkins’ half of the first inning has started the same way. Coach Anne Campbell pencils in Hayley Nybo as the Royals’ No. 3 hitter, watches the first two players take their at-bats and then cheers on her catcher.

The latter is done as she takes giant steps back from the third-base coaching box, all the way behind the hot corner bag.

“Because if she rips one foul,” Campbell said, inching back as she talked, “look out. I’m on my toes when she’s up to bat. I don’t know if I could get out of the way. She just hits the ball so hard.”

One of Nybo’s eight home runs this season stands out above all the others. In a game at Wayzata this season, Nybo clocked one over the temporary softball fence and clanged off what Campbell described as the permanent “man fence” used for men’s slow-pitch softball at the complex.

“When she gets up to bat,” Campbell said. “You know something is going to happen.”

Nybo’s persistent threat at the plate and skills behind it has earned her this year’s Star Tribune softball Metro Player of the Year award.

Part of the Hopkins program since she was a seventh-grader on the “B” team, Nybo has grown as a player every season.

“She was already pretty good,” said Campbell, who has been coaching softball for more than 30 years. “It’s hard to say when she started getting so great. She’s so competitive and so passionate.

“She is the best hitter I have ever, ever coached.”

Nybo is often the first player to show up for practice in the batting cages and it’s not uncommon for Campbell to force her off the field after practice has finished.

Because of Nybo’s affinity for the long ball, Campbell initiated a new rule for practices.

“I got tired of going to get home run balls,” she said. “So now I tell them, ‘Get them yourself.’”

After batting .534 with eight homers and 25 RBI last year, earning her a first-team all-metro nod, Nybo’s already strong reputation took its toll.

“I’m not getting pitched to as nicely as in the past,” she said. “But I go up there with a confidence in myself that I’m going to get a hit. And it works sometimes.”

Indeed it does.

Nybo enters this week’s state tournament — Hopkins’ third trip in four years — with a .482 average. Her 41 hits lead the team, of which 23 are singles. Most outfielders opt to play on the warning track when she hits, cutting down her extra-base hits.

“I want to go up there and hit; I’m aggressive,” Nybo said. “So it’s been harder this year. I usually just pick a half of the plate and just wait. The pitch will come.”

Nybo originally gave a verbal commitment to the University of Minnesota as a sophomore, but signed with Drake after the Gophers switched head coaches last year.

The Bulldogs’ coaching staff followed Nybo for nine games at a showcase in Colorado last summer, Nybo said. She hit towering home runs in that tournament, prompting Campbell’s phone to rattle with text messages from her peers.

“She can get that single or go yard on you, too,” Campbell said. “All of our girls are hard working. But Hayley takes it a step further.”