cross' cycle punctuates historic homecoming

Sam Alves

April 6, 2021

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — When Tim Smalling hit for the cycle in front of a Blacksburg crowd treated to a 22-10 win over visiting Columbia 10 years, 10 months, and 22 days ago, no one knew when the feat would be done again.

Eight years and 24 days before that, Brad Brauder completed the feat for the Hokies in April 2002 — and did he ever, going eight-for-eight, scoring seven times, hitting four home runs, driving in 14 runs and totaling 23 bases in a 35-4 sweep-capping win at Georgetown in Tech’s Big East days.

And they certainly didn’t know who would do it.

No one knew who Gavin Cross was at the time when Smalling completed the cycle in March 2010 — Cross was just a 9-year-old boy then — but the now-20-year-old cemented himself as one of the top players in collegiate baseball when he picked up a cycle-clinching RBI single in the ninth inning of No. 23 Virginia Tech’s 15-5 win at East Tennessee State on Tuesday.

That is, no one but Cross’ circle of young friends and family living in Bristol, Tennessee, just a brief 45-minute, intra-state drive away from Thomas Field in Johnson City.

That circle may have included friends and teammates of Adam Cross, Gavin’s father, whose name is scattered throughout the ETSU baseball record books. Top 10 in single-season hits, batting average, runs, doubles, and stolen bases, Adam Cross’ name is well-known to the Buccaneer faithfull.

On Tuesday, they got to know the exploits of his son, whose reverse cycle — that’s when the batter’s hits go from home run to triple to double to, finally, single — made for quite the homecoming.

In fact, seven runs came home thanks to Cross’ bat. A second-inning grand slam — part of a five-run second inning that put the Hokies (16-9, Coastal-leading 11-7 ACC) up for good — gave him four RBIs early. His double scored two in the fifth, and, perhaps running low on power, he squeaked an RBI single to finish the job.

His third-inning triple came with nobody on, but Cross did score thanks to TJ Rumfield’s grounder to second. In total, he scored nine runs via RBI and by crossing home himself.

One of the other six runs came to start the first as Nick Biddison, playing in his first game of the season following shoulder surgery, brought Jack Hurley home from second after he hit a ground rule double to right center field on the first pitch of the game.

Tanner Schobel scored the other run in Tech’s five-run second inning. He reached second on a dropped fly ball by shortstop Ashton King — one of four errors on the day by the Buccaneers to go along with one by the Hokies. After advancing to second on a sacrifice fly to left, Lucas Donlon scored to bring him home.

It wasn’t smooth sailing early against the Buccaneers (15-12, 5-4 SoCon), who scored all five of their runs in the first two innings and loaded the bases in the first three.

ETSU took a 2-1 lead in the first with a sacrifice fly from David Beam and RBI single Jake Lyle. That was the only frame of the day for freshman Griffin Green, who head coach John Szefc did credit with keeping the bullpen in order in last weekend’s series win against Boston College, during which he pitched 2 ⅔ scoreless innings.

In that same post-series press conference, Szefc also highlighted Ryan Okuda’s 6 ⅔ innings of one-run ball in game one against Boston College. That appearance couldn’t have been any different than his relief effort following Green, however, as he allowed three runs — two were unearned after Schobel’s fielding error — on two hits and one walk without recording an out.

Peter Sakellaris, who was eventually credited with the win, finally settled down the ETSU attack with 1 ⅓ innings of scoreless work, and the Bucs wouldn’t score for the rest of the night as Tech cycled through its bullpen, sending Noah Johnson, Xander Hamilton, Christian Worley, Graham Firoved and Jonah Hurney to the mound with bigger leads and less in question.

All that was left to be answered in the final inning was Cross’ final stat line. Hitting third in the lineup, he struck out in the seventh inning, and Fritz Genther was due up to start the ninth pinch-hitting as the No. 8 batter. With Genther leading off the inning, least two hitters needed to reach base for Cross to even have a chance at accomplishing the rare feat..

Biddison’s play will be important for the rest of the regular season and beyond for the Hokies, and on this night, his seven-pitch, two-out walk ahead of Cross can’t be overlooked, though it would be easy to buy the season's end with this game’s end result well decided in the ninth.

Cross’s trip to his home state would have ended as a rare, impressive — but not storybook — single-shy-of-the-cycle effort without Biddison’s third walk of the day.