Wright State falls to Virginia Tech in first round of NCAA tournament

Raiders will play elimination game at 1 p.m. Saturday

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Gavin Cross went 5-for-6 with a double, a home run and five RBIs and top-seeded Virginia Tech beat No. 4 seed Wright State 15-9 Friday night in the Blacksburg Regional at English Field.

Virginia Tech (42-12) plays No. 3 seed Columbia (31-16) in the semifinals at 7 p.m. Saturday after Wright State (30-26) plays second-seeded Gonzaga (36-18) in a loser-out game at 1 p.m. Saturday. It will air on ESPN+. It will be the first matchup between Wright State and Gonzaga.

Columbia beat Gonzaga 8-2 in the other first-round game Friday in Blacksburg.

Nick Biddison was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the first and Cross followed with a home run to right field to make it 2-0 and the Hokies never trailed. Cross added and RBI single in the second and then swiped second and Biddison scored from third on a double-steal and Cade Hunter hit a solo homer in the third to make it 5-0.

Wright State’s Sammy Sass and Jay Luikart had back-to-back RBI singles in the top of the fourth. Alec Sayre had a two-RBI double and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Sass in the fifth to tie it at 5-all, but Virginia Tech answered with five runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 10-5 lead.

Biddison finished 5-for-5 with an RBI, three steals and four runs scored. Carson Jones and Carson DeMartini combined for four hits, including three doubles, four RBIs and four runs for Virginia Tech.

Zane Harris went 3-for-3 with two RBIs and Julian Greenwell had two doubles and two RBIs for Wright State (30-26). Sayre and Sass each added two RBIs.

Wright State fell to 1-3 against Virginia Tech this season. The teams played a three-game series in Blacksburg in the regular season.

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