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if I'm not contributing with the bat I must do so pitching and fielding, and in some way help my team win. It's hard when you can't take a pitch off. But it keeps you in the game." Being a two-way player helps Howard when he's at the plate and on the mound because he has a unique perspective of what's required to be successful. "Being a pitcher is to my advantage in knowing how you would want to pitch to a certain batter and read the swings he's getting," Howard said. "I definitely want to get the odds in my favor in terms of getting pitches in my favor depending on the at-bat. "When I know I'm going to start, I usually watch tape on opposing hitters and look for their strengths and weaknesses. Depending on that told Nick not to pitch at all when he went away last summer. We wanted him to concentrate on trying to come back and win the third base job." That's exactly what happened during the fall season. "This season as a staff, we had to decide what role he would fulfill because we knew we would need him as a pitcher," O'Connor said. "Our choice was to make him a closer or our Sunday starter. "We chose to make him the third starter so he could play third base on Friday and Saturday and start on the mound on Sunday." Just like two-way players face challenges, so do coaches, as O'Connor admitted. "The challenge when you have a two-way player is their arm care is so important," he said. "First, they must have the physical gifts to do it. … Next, you have to be a fierce competitor to do it. You have to want that challenge to do both." UVa head coach Brian O'Connor on two-way players day, I usually can make an adjustment and go from there. Baseball is a game of constant adjustments." O'Connor recruited Howard as an infielder and didn't give the slightest thought to having him pitch even though he did pitch for St. John's College High in Maryland. But O'Connor could see Howard was "a good athlete." "As last year materialized, we had a veteran infield and Nick wasn't getting much time as a freshman," O'Connor said. "Last spring, we started pitching him some to see if he could help us more instead of just as a position player. He did and he was easier to manage because he wasn't playing every day. He was ready on the mound. "As it developed, we saw this guy was pretty special and we saw he could help us. We knew we lost our third baseman [Steve Bruno] last year. We "You have to be very conscious of that. In the past, when we had those great two-way players, they played first base and their throws were limited. At first base, you're catching the ball and not throwing it. "It was a new challenge for us whereas other guys would start on Friday and then play in the field. Management of an arm is crucial." The challenge within the challenge is to monitor the number of pitches a two-way player throws when he's on the mound. "The workload is so much more than anybody else on the team," O'Connor said. "You're asking him to throw 80 to 100 pitches on the mound. "We've had a long history of having a lot of success with these guys. The one common thread they have is they're all great athletes. You have to be a pretty special athlete to handle this. We take