KRISTIN ELVES/Arizona Daily Wildcat Arizona sophomore pitcher Jenny Gladding releases a pitch last weekend at Hillenbrand Stadium. The softball team swept four exhibition games over the weekend.

For some softball coaches, having only two pitchers would be a cause for concern.

However, Arizona head coach Mike Candrea isn't worried. How could he be, considering his lineup boasts the overpowering combination of pitchers Jennie Finch and Jenny Gladding.

To understand how dominant these two are in the world of softball would be to compare them to names like Susie Parra and Nancy Evans. But unless you've followed Wildcat softball for years (or you're a sixth-year senior), these names mean nothing to you.

Finch and Gladding are the Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling of college softball.

One is tall and thin while the other is shorter and muscular. The comparison to these two professional athletes certainly demonstrates how important these two women are to the Arizona program. Unfortunately, it comes nowhere near telling how dominant they are.

To understand this dominance, you have to see it. No matter how hard I try, I could never paint a good enough picture for you with words.

I could tell you that between the two of them, they struck out 50 of the 75 batters they faced over the weekend, but that wouldn't be enough.

I could tell you that Finch threw two no-hitters, one of them a perfect game, and that wouldn't tell it all.

Instead you have to see the two in action to fully absorb the overwhelming power.

To the credit of both Sonoma State and Western New Mexico, when they went down, they went down swinging. The only problem was that the ball was already in the catcher's glove before they got the bat halfway around. Finch and Gladding were that dominant.

Granted, these two schools are not anywhere near the same level as Arizona, but that doesn't take away from what the two pitchers accomplished. Three hits and one run over four games is good against anybody - Division II or otherwise.

If there is one drawback to having pitchers this good, Candrea has already found it.

After the team's victories over Western New Mexico, he told them he was concerned about the possibility of them having a lack of attention in the field during future games. How could they not relax considering they only had to make 33 percent of the outs over four games?

That stat aside, the team is young and will have to learn to play with intensity even when it's not heavily involved in the game.

Candrea knows that with a young team, there will be times when they struggle. Despite this fact, he said he also feels he has the pitching to come out of those times on the winning end.

There's no way around it - the success of this team depends heavily on its pitching. If Arizona softball history repeats itself, that dependence will prove to be a good thing.