University of St. Thomas Athletics
Baseball
- Title:
- Assistant Coach/Director of Operations
- Email:
- tanner.vavra@stthomas.edu
- Phone:
- 651-962-7915
The 2024-25 school year marks the seventh for Tanner Vavra as an assistant coach for Tommie Baseball. Besides his on-field coaching, Tanner takes on additional duties as Director of Operations.
In 2024, Tommie Baseball won the university’s first Summit League team championship in just its third season of DI competition. The 2024 squad finished with a 22-24 overall record, going 16-10 in Summit League play. The Purple had eight come-from-behind wins en route to a Summit championship. The Tommies earned eight All-Summit League honors, including two First Team accolades (Brigs Richartz and Max Moris), while two-student athletes earned Summit League weekly awards, four were named to the CSC Academic All-District Team, and a pair of Tommies were named to the Summit League All-Academic Team.
The Tommies continued into year two of Division I play with a 10-34 record overall and 6-18 mark in the Summit League, finishing seventh. St. Thomas came away with its second in over a Power Five opponent following a 2-1 victory at Kansas State. Eighteen games were decided by three runs or fewer as the Toms went 6-12 in those games. The Tommies won their final series of the season with two wins at New Mexico State, averaging 13.7 runs over three games. The Toms defense ranked fourth in the Summit League with a .966 fielding percentage and fifth with a 7.44 ERA. Two student-athletes earned the Summit League Peak Performer of the Week (Brigs Richartz) and Pitcher of the Week (Evan Esch), while Matthew Enck, Sam Kulesa, Max Moris, and Richartz all were named to the CSC Academic All-District Team.
Tanner immediately brought a wealth of baseball knowledge to the Tommie program during his brief tenure on a staff that guided the Purple to an NCAA runner-up finish in 2021. During the 2021 season under Vavra, the Tommie offense averaged 5.7 runs per game while reaching base at a .374 clip and stealing 90 bases. Defensively, the Tommies finished the season with a .975 fielding percentage, ranked seventh in NCAA Division III.
A native of Menomonie, Wis., Vavra was All-Region and third-team junior college All-American at Madison College before transferring to Valparaiso University for his junior and senior seasons. He was a two-year All-Horizon League selection. While playing at Valparaiso University, Vavra spent the summer of 2012 in the Northwoods League with the now defunct Alexandria Beetles. He was named a 2012 NWL All-Star and led the league in hitting with a .381 average 60 games played.
Vavra was selected by the Minnesota Twins in the 30th round of the 2013 Major League Baseball draft. He went on to play three seasons (2013-15) in the Twins' minor-league system as a utility infielder. He also played professionally with the St. Paul Saints and the Sioux Falls Explorers.
Vavra comes from a baseball family. His father, Joe, served as quality control coach and hitting coach under Ron Gardenhire and Paul Molitor for the Minnesota Twins and the Detroit Tigers. His two younger brothers, Trey and Terrin, have also played baseball professionally. Trey currently plays with the Baltimore Orioles.
