As the Jacksonville Suns took batting practice Wednesday night at Five County Stadium in Zebulon, N.C., before their series opener with the Carolina Mudcats, one player stood just to the side of the cage, hitting sharp grounders to the infield.

Usually it's the coaches who handle infield practice, but for the Suns, it was outfielder-turned-reliever Rick Asadoorian practicing his old stroke before the game.

"That makes me feel at least like I'm some kind of a baseball player," Asadoorian said of hitting balls to the infield. "Because pitchers you always hear are the non-athletes. It keeps me kind of sane. I'm not just a pitcher, I'm still a baseball player."

Asadoorian's versatility wasn't put on full display, however, until one night later. After relieving star prospect Clayton Kershaw in the second inning -- Kershaw was thought to have been removed due to a potential promotion to Los Angeles -- Asadoorian proceeded to throw five one-hit innings en route to his fourth victory of the season in a 6-0 Suns' win.

But Asadoorian had as much to do with the six runs Jacksonville scored as with the none they allowed. The former outfielder went 2-for-3 at the plate, driving in the second Suns' run of the game with a sharp single through the left side in the fourth before belting his first home run of the season in the sixth.

Not just a pitcher, indeed.

The two hits were Asadoorian's first in 2008, but he used to rack up plenty, at least before July 5, 2006-the turning point of his career. In late June, Asadoorian, then playing with the Chattanooga Lookouts-the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds-convinced manager Jayhawk Owens to let him throw a side session "just for the heck of it."

It became clear that Asadoorian, who accumulated 54 outfield assists during his five years in the Minors, had a live and accurate arm. So with his bullpen taxed in the 12th inning of a game at West Tenn, Owens called on his outfielder to take the hill. And Asadoorian rewarded his manager's trust, performing just a little better than most position players when called on to pitch: five strikeouts in two scoreless innings and a win.

"It's kind of easy in an extra-inning game," Asadoorian said. "I know how it is as a hitter: you come in there trying to win the game. At the time, I was throwing the ball pretty hard -- 90 to 95 -- and it's tough hitting those guys late in the game like that. So I just wanted to throw strikes and if I lost, so what? I'm just an outfielder coming in throwing as hard as I can."

Asadoorian's emergency appearance was his first on the mound since his senior year in high school seven years earlier. And even then, he had stopped pitching regularly his junior year.

He appeared in two more games in 2006 for the Lookouts, maintaining a pristine 0.00 ERA. In 2007, he made the switch to pitcher permanently.

"It was a situation I took to, and I said I'll give it a shot and see how it goes," Asadoorian said of the conversion.

That openminded mentality has anchored Asadoorian during a maelstrom of a Minor League career -- an odyssey that he said he never could have envisioned when it began.

It had what Asadoorian called a "surreal" start when the Worcester, Mass., native was drafted in the first round by the hometown Red Sox in 1999. Just weeks out of high school, Asadoorian received what was then the largest signing bonus in Boston history -- over $1.7 million, surpassed only by the $2 million given Daisuke Matsuzaka in 2007. Long-held dreams of taking the Fenway Park field in Boston's home whites seemed inevitable.

But after a strong season in the Gulf Coast League, Asadoorian struggled in his first full year of professional baseball. He hit just .212 for the Class A Augusta GreenJackets with 139 strikeouts in 116 games in 2001.

"It was kind of a wake-up call. I got hurt, I hurt my arm, and [the season] wasn't as good as I wanted it to be," Asadoorian said. "It was a little difficult."

He added that the hardest part was the mental transition to professional ball, as he had yet to deal with hardship on the diamond before. Too often, he allowed one bad at-bat to snowball into a slump.

The Red Sox gave up on Asadoorian, trading him to the St. Louis Cardinals in a deal for Dustin Hermanson. The trade was a rude introduction to the business side of baseball.

"I had very high aspirations with the Red Sox, and I really wanted to make it to the big leagues as a member of the Red Sox organization," Asadoorian said. "But the business side takes over, and things happen.... I know that's part of the game."

Asadoorian had a solid 2002 in the Midwest League, but an atrocious start to 2003 led to another trade, this time to Texas. There, he worked his way up to Triple-A by the end of 2004, and the Reds selected him in the Rule 5 draft that off-season. He had another brief stint in Triple-A in 2005 before settling in with the Lookouts full-time in 2006.

But converting to pitcher meant a new start in 2007, back down in Class A Advanced, where Asadoorian hadn't been in four years. Again, it was an open mind that salvaged the player that had previously been undone by mental lapses.

"Even if I spent all year last year with A-ball, it would have been fine with me," Asadoorian said. "I'm still learning things. But being able to go to Double-A last year was actually a big step. This is where the game changes, where the pace of the game speeds up. Everyone here can play."

That everyone includes Asadoorian, who compiled a 3.59 ERA in 37 appearances last season for the Lookouts. The performance earned him a non-roster invitation to Spring Training with the Dodgers and his eventual spot in the Suns' bullpen -- a spot that still leaves him a little antsy during games.

"That's the toughest part about transitioning over from outfielder to a pitcher -- not being in there everyday and just sitting down and relaxing," Asadoorian said. "It's tough for me to just change over that quick and all of a sudden have nothing to do with the game."

But Asadoorian feels comfortable in the Jacksonville pen, learning from former big leaguer and fellow Massachusetts native Tanyon Sturtze while passing on his own tips to younger players.

Asadoorian got off to a rocky start in 2008, as his ERA ballooned close to 8.00 after he gave up six runs in a single inning last week. But if there's one thing he's proven in his career, it's that he can bounce back. After all, he's taken his share of punches and emerged, not unscathed, but unshaken.

Kind of like he did Thursday night in Zebulon.

"You're gonna have those outings, and I've had a few of them this year," he said. "You gotta learn defeat as you gotta learn how to do good. Not everyone's Clayton Kershaw. You really gotta find a way to get through those times as well as getting through the good times. And if you can find an even-keel way to go about things, you're gonna be pretty successful."