Gavin Cross has been like a lot of his Quad Cities River Bandits teammates.
Consistency at the plate has been hard to find lately for the Kansas City Royals' first-round pick in the 2022 draft.
He said following Quad-Cities' 2-0 Midwest League loss Sunday to Cedar Rapids at Modern Woodmen Park that he is working through some issues with his swing.
"I'm continuing to work hard and get back to where I have a good feeling from one at-bat to the next,'' Cross said. "I'm just taking things one day at a time, trying to take a little step forward every day.''
Cross isn't satisfied but from a statistical standpoint but moved in the right direction against the Kernels, collecting half of the River Bandits' four hits in their fourth straight loss.
The two-hit game gave Cross his fourth multi-hit game of the season and hist first since collecting a pair of hits in a May 5 game at Great Lakes.
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He doubled with one out in the fourth inning and reached on a single two innings later.
Carter Jensen followed with a walk in the fourth -- the only time back-to-back batters reached base for Quad Cities on Sunday -- but a pair of ground-ball outs ended what proved to be the River Bandits' lone scoring threat of the game.
A double play wiped away Cross' chances after he had reached on a base hit.
The two hits raised Cross' average from .168 to .180 on Sunday, numbers he hopes to move well beyond he continues to work at his game.
"That's really what it takes. You have to come out every day and get back to work, just keep grinding away at it,'' Cross said.
River Bandits manager Brooks Conrad said that is the only solution to the offensive struggles that have led Quad Cities to being shutout twice and behind held three total runs during an ongoing four-game losing streak.
"I've been there, and you just have to keep believing in yourself, keep pushing and fight through it,'' Conrad said.
"Confidence is such a big thing and our guys have the ability and I believe we'll get there. The team I see working every day, they believe that, too. They're working on it.''
Solid pitching and consistently efforts defensively have helped keep Quad Cities in games.
"We just needed a little bump offensively and we'll get there,'' Conrad said. "We're staying positive with them and we will get it done. I truly believe that.''
The way the River Bandits have played defensively tells him the team is still connected on the task at hand.
"We're playing good defense and not taking our at-bats onto the field with us and that's a positive sign,'' Conrad said.
Cross, whose glove work in center denied the Kernels a couple of hits Sunday, believes maintaining that work ethic and determination will ultimately lead to offensive consistency in his game.
"I'm just going day by day, working as hard as a I can,'' Cross said.
All four of the River Bandits' hits Sunday came off of Cedar Rapids starter Jordan Carr, who walked a pair of batters and struck out six over six shutout innings.
Two of those six strikeouts came after Kale Emshoff opened the bottom of the third with a single and Jack Alexander singled with one out.
Cross' two hits came before former River Bandit Charlie Neuweiler and Gianluca Dalatri combined to give up a pair of walks over the final three innings.
Cedar Rapids scored its two runs in fifth inning off of Quad Cities reliever Wander Arias, just the second and third runs allowed over 26.2 innings of work by River Bandits relievers in its seven-game series against the Kernels.
A two-out walk to Emmanuel Lewis preceded a triple by Tanner Schobel and a double by Kala'i Rosario that drove home Cedar Rapids' two runs.
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Cross, Bandits search for offense continues - Quad-City Times
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