BLACKSBURG. Va. — This has been a special spring for Gavin Cross and his Virginia Tech teammates.
It looks like this will be a special summer for Cross, too.
The junior center fielder is part of a potent lineup for the Hokies, who are on track to make the NCAA baseball tournament for the first time in nine years.
He is so good with a bat that he is expected to be chosen in the first round of the Major League Baseball amateur draft in July.
Major league scouts have been a constant presence at his games this year, but he doesn’t mind the pressure of being scrutinized.
“I mostly look at it as a blessing. I’d rather it be that [way] than no scouts,” he said. “Ever since I was nine or 10, I wanted to be a big leaguer. You kind of think about it and you think it can happen, but then I actually see it happen [with scouts] in front of my face.
“I just kind of embrace it like, ‘Hey, these guys are here to watch me. Let’s not be cocky but confident, and go out here and be yourself and have fun with your teammates, show them that you’re a good teammate, show them that you play hard and showcase your skills.’
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“Hopefully, they like what they see.”
“I would be surprised if he didn’t go in the top 10-15 picks,” said a major league scout who asked to remain anonymous. “He’s a professional hitter. He sees the ball really well. He can hit to all fields — and hit to all fields with power.”
Tech has not had a player chosen in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft since Joe Saunders in 2002.
In a mock draft Thursday, Baseball America projected Cross to be taken by the Minnesota Twins with the eighth pick of the first round. The publication ranked him Wednesday as the No. 10 draft prospect in the country.
But that does not mean Cross is resting on his laurels this spring.
“You always have something to prove,” he said. “I want to be the best player I can be, and the best player in the draft.”
Cross grew up in Bristol, Tennessee. His father, Adam, played baseball for East Tennessee State and in the minor leagues.
So it’s no surprise that Cross gravitated to the game as well.
“Ever since I’ve been able to think, I’ve been playing baseball,” he said. “I fell in love with it.”
Cross’ father coached Cross on Little League and travel-ball teams. He continued to coach him in high school, serving as an assistant for the Tennessee High School team.
“All my foundational stuff for my swing and how I play the game and all I know about baseball is from him,” Cross said.
Cross not only played baseball for his high school but golf as well.
“I’m probably the best golfer here on the baseball team,” he said.
Cross verbally committed to Virginia Tech in the fall of his junior year of high school. He picked Tech over ETSU, Liberty and a few others.
“He wasn’t like this high-profile, five-star player at the time,” Tech coach John Szefc said. “But he was a good player, so we pursued him.”
Cross was not drafted out of high school.
“So many high school kids that don’t get drafted … come to college and they have a little bit more to prove,” Cross said. “You come here and you’re playing against the best competition and proving yourself and kind of having that chip on your shoulder and trying to get better at every facet of the game.”
As a Tech freshman, Cross tweaked his swing and batting stance in fall practice because he wanted to hit with more power — and hit a breaking ball.
“He’s worked very hard since he’s been here,” Szefc said.
Cross started in right field as a freshman, although Tech’s 2020 season was cut short after 16 games because of the coronavirus pandemic. He hit .369, earning freshman All-America honors.
Cross also started in right field last spring. He led Tech in batting average (.345) and homers (11), earning All-ACC first-team honors. He also had 35 RBIs.
“His biggest asset I think he has in baseball is his baseball IQ and his mind, how he handles things,” his father said. “He’s a guy who never gets too high or too low. … He’s got a professional mindset.”
“He doesn’t get fazed by the ups and downs and the failures of the game,” Szefc said.
Cross had a homecoming game of sorts last season when the Hokies visited ETSU. Playing in front of family and friends and against his parents’ alma mater, Cross hit for the cycle.
It was hardly his only impressive performance of the year. The anonymous major league scout was impressed by a single Cross got off Georgia Tech’s Zach Maxwell last season.
“Maxwell … throws 100 mph, and [Cross] looked at ease at the plate,” the scout. “He took some really hard sliders in the dirt, which a lot of kids would swing at. And then I saw him barrel up a 98-mph fastball for a hard line drive up the middle. And that’s when I knew this kid was special with the bat.”
During Tech’s series with North Carolina State last season, State coach Elliott Avent told Cross he wanted him on the team Avent would be managing that summer — the 2021 USA Baseball collegiate national team.
“It was just a no-brainer he was going to be on this team,” Avent said. “And what an asset he was. “He has great bat speed and just a good swing that stays in the zone a long time.”
Before playing three games against the U.S. Olympic team, the collegiate national team was split into two for 11 instrasquad games that were played in former Appalachian League ballparks, including the Southwest Virginia ballparks of Pulaski, Bristol and Danville and four ballparks in Tennessee. So Cross got plenty of chances to play in front of family and friends.
“It’s probably the most fun I’ve had playing baseball,” he said. “Ended up having a couple of the best weeks of my life hitting-wise.”
With major league scouts looking on, Cross led the entire collegiate national team in batting average (.455) and RBIs (13) in those 11 instrasquad games. He shared the lead in homers (four).
“He put on quite a show,” Avent said.
The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Cross has moved over to center field for Tech his year, although the anonymous scout expects he will play right field as a pro.
He is hitting .341 with 10 home runs.
“He’s a bit of a marked man. He’s not sneaking up on anybody this year after what he did last year and after his summer,” Szefc said. “Everybody knows who he is, so they pitch him very carefully. … It’s probably helped his strike-zone awareness.”
Scouts have been watching his every move this year.
“He’s under a microscope,” Szefc said. “Everything he does is evaluated. It’s difficult. … He’s handled it really well. He’s a very clutch performer. He usually can elevate what he does when it matters most.”
Last Saturday, Cross and the Hokies beat Boston College in a game that was played at Fenway Park. Cross had two hits and two RBIs in the game.
“It was pretty sweet, playing center field in Fenway,” he said.
Perhaps he will be playing in a big-league ballpark again one day.
“I hope so,” he said.