BRUINS SPLIT ACES\Burns, Clark pitch in to share load.

Byline: Bill Schlotter Daily News Staff Writer

It is something like being the main man in the Oval Office.

Chief resident of the Papal Palace.

Captain of the starship Enterprise.

Step inside the pitching circle at UCLA and you're in a bell jar of high expectations.

B'Ann Burns and Kaci Clark - the top two pitchers on the nation's No. 1 softball team - know the feeling.

"They walk into that circle knowing there's a lot of pressure," said UCLA co-coach Sue Enquist. "There's a lot of history at that position at UCLA."

A lot of history indeed. Try seven pitchers with 20 All-American selections between them in the program's 21 seasons.

"I don't think a lot of people understand the pressure at that position on this team," Enquist said.

Burns and Clark understand.

But they say Enquist and co-head coach Sharron Backus try to keep the heat turned down by reminding them that softball is a team game.

"Sue and Sharron make it very clear that we have a job on the team," Clark said. "But there's only pressure to perform to the best of your own ability. Our team is oriented toward the present, not the past."

So far, however, the present has reflected the past. Like the legends that have preceded them, Burns and Clark have dominated their opposition.

The cool and quiet Burns is 12-2 with a 0.92 ERA for the 21-3 Bruins.

The gregarious Clark is 7-1, 1.63.

"We've been scoring a lot of runs," Enquist said. "And our pitchers are doing some nice things."

Clark and Burns did back-to-back nice things earlier this month, shutting out Ohio State 9-0 and 13-0 in a doubleheader. Clark's effort was a perfect game and Burns' was a no-hitter.

"They really complement each other very well," Enquist said.

Opposites often do.

While Burns is a 6-foot-1 finesse pitcher, Clark, at 5-4, is the fireballer.

"What has gotten B'Ann to the top is her ability to throw off-speed and her ability to place the ball," Enquist said. "Kaci is a power pitcher."

Burns has been as steady as her disposition since arriving on the Bruins campus in 1994 from Phoenix, Ariz., where she lost only two games in her high school career. She was 21-5 her freshman season in 1994. And despite Australian Tanya Harding getting most of the ink in last year's national title run, Burns was a consistent winner too with a 23-5 mark.

Harding, the World Series MVP, pitched and won the Bruins' final five games. And she was liked and appreciated by her teammates.

But she was not a one-woman team.

"Everybody focused on Tanya, but it wasn't just her," Burns said. "She didn't win it for us."

Burns points out that she and Clark aren't the sole reasons for this year's success, either.

"It's been an all-around effort," she said. "The team is hitting well and playing good defense. And Kaci and I are pitching really well."

Clark came to UCLA last year after two standout seasons at Georgia State, but was bumped out of the rotation when Harding joined the team a month and a half into the season.

There were no hard feelings, Clark said.

"Actually, it took a lot of pressure off me that I really wasn't ready for," said Clark, who was recuperating from a knee injury at the time.

Instead of pitching every other game, Clark got to take her recovery slowly while seeing enough action to finish the year with a 10-0 record and 0.88 ERA.

Clark was 42-24 in two seasons at Georgia State and was team MVP and the school's woman athlete of the year both seasons.

But after her second year, she asked to be released from her scholarship.

"I kind of felt I had learned as much as I could from the Georgia State coaching staff," said the senior from Brentwood, Tenn. "I kind of wanted to go on to something bigger and see if I could handle it."

The premier softball program in the country, UCLA is definitely something bigger.

And so far, Clark - and Burnssp - are handling it just fine.

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Kaci Clark, left, and B'Ann Burns are the top pitchers for UCLA's No. 1-ranked softball team. Terri Thuente / Daily News Box All-American UCLA Pitchers