Alex Byington

TUSCALOOSA — Daniel Cucjen spent the better part of the previous three seasons as one of Alabama’s key role players, the veteran that went out and simply did his job whenever he was called upon.

But as of the last few weeks, the senior utility infielder has carved himself out a nice niche as a Crimson Tide starter, seeing regular playing time at both shortstop and third base since a weekend series at LSU three weeks ago.

“It’s fun, it’s a great feeling to help contribute,” said Cucjen, who has replaced struggling but talented sophomore Chandler Avant at short over the last two SEC series. “This team has so much depth, that really anybody could step in at anytime, but it just happens to be me at this time.”

Since seeing regular playing time, Cucjen has been consistent in the field and at the plate, hitting .275 (11 of 40) with four runs scored and a pair of RBIs against UGA last weekend.

“Really he took advantage of an opportunity, and when you do that, you get more and more chances to go out and continue to play well,” Gaspard said of Cucjen. “It’s like with any player, we talk about it over and over, you never know when your chance is going to come, and you’ve just got to be prepared to do it.

“I think he’s shown here in the last three weeks, when it was presented to him, he went out and played tremendous defense, he swung the bat and got big hits for us. And he’s certainly given us a spark when we’ve needed it.”

It’s that approach Gaspard is looking for from his midweek starting pitcher, employing a trial-by-fire approach to determine who could be the guy to take over the pivotal role after a disappointing string of Tuesday games the last three weeks.

Alabama has been outscored 27-3 in its last three Tuesday night games, including lopsided losses to instate rivals Auburn (10-1 in the Capital City Classic last week) and UAB (8-0) in the last two weeks.

“If you go back and look at those games, … we haven’t pitched it as well, we haven’t gotten the quality starts,” Gaspard said. “And in some games, defensively we probably broke down a little bit and offensively we haven’t been the same team we’ve been in the middle of the week as we have been on the weekends. It’s a combination of different reasons why.”

In an attempt to put a stop to that trend, the Tide (16-11, 5-4 SEC) are turning to a freshman to start the first game of Tuesday’s rescheduled doubleheader against Alcorn State, allowing right hander Brock Love to take the mound for the 3 p.m. first pitch.

“We’re excited for Love getting his first college start, he’s thrown the ball pretty well and I think he’s ready to get his first college start,” Gaspard said. “And obviously he’s a guy we’d like to see get pretty deep in the game and shorten it up and down for us.”

Due to the threat of rain Wednesday, the Tide will play a doubleheader against Alcorn State Tuesday, with senior Jake Hubbard set to start the second game at 6 p.m. at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.

“This game always starts on the mound, you have to a good start,” Gaspard said. “And when you get good starts, other things start to come together.”

In the last several midweek games, Alabama has turned to veteran arms like seniors Jon Keller and Mike Oczypok, only to see the game get out of hand early, trailing by a combined 12-1 over the first three innings versus Auburn and UAB.

Which is ultimately why Gaspard is going back to the drawing board.

“Unless you have that solid guy that you’re just going to roll out every Tuesday, and he’s kind of part of your four-man rotation, that’s what Tuesday becomes — an opportunity for guys,” Gaspard said. “Now Brock gets that opportunity tomorrow. Jake Hubbard’s going to get a start. We’re trying that next guy that can roll out there and give us four or five clean innings, and we’ll continue to do that until we get it.

“So yes, it’s a little bit of an experiment, and it’s an opportunity for some guys.”

Especially for Love, who could cement himself a place in Alabama’s rotation with a solid outing Tuesday afternoon.

Love enters this week with a 2.89 ERA over 91/ 3 innings of relief in five games this season after coming to Alabama as the top-rated high school player in the state according to Perfect Game USA.

And while a strong outing from Love could go a long way to righting the ship, whether or not Alabama can turn the corner and develop the sort of consistency Gaspard is looking for will depend on others embracing their own individual opportunities, just like Cucjen.

“I think we just haven’t competed the way we need to compete,” Cucjen said. “The results have been the way they are and we can’t change them, but now moving forward, we just have to be ready to go on Tuesday or Wednesday nights.”