Vavra delivers career night for Elizabethton

When Trey Vavra steps into the batter's box, he knows exactly what he wants to do.

"I don't really care so much about getting hits," he said. "It's about driving in runs. I take a lot of pride in that."

The Twins prospect excelled at both pursuits Monday when he went 3-for-5 with a career-high six RBIs in Rookie-level Elizabethton's 13-6 win over Greeneville. Batting fifth in the lineup, he hit a two-run single in the first inning, a two-RBI double in the third and another two-run single in the seventh.

"Any time you can get a couple RBIs in a game, it's a bonus," Vavra said. "And then to get six, I think I might have doubled my RBI total for the year, so there you go."

Through 22 games, the 33rd-round pick from last month's Draft is batting .296/.367/.444 with seven doubles, one triple, one home run and 18 RBIs.

His previous high for RBIs in a single game was four, which he also set against Greeneville, on June 19. The 22-year-old had collected three hits in one game on one other occasion: June 29 vs. Bristol.

"I've just been trying to stay confident and get some pitches up in the zone," Vavra said. "Lately, I've been just right on pitches and battling up there. So I wanted to get a pitch early in the count in a plus count and do something with it.

"We've been working with [batting coach] Jeff Reed a lot in the cage. He's with us every day. I attribute a lot of it to him, because he's been working with me a lot."

While Reed was happy to see Vavra knock six runs in, he wanted to see his student continue adding to the pile. The designated hitter came up with two outs and a man on third in the eighth, but struck out looking.

"After that at-bat, he was just like, 'Whatever. You still got six.' So, pretty cool," Vavra said.

The Florida native is the son of Joe Vavra, Minnesota's third-base coach, and the younger brother of Tanner Vavra, a 30th-round selection of the Twins last year. Tanner, who is blind in his right eye, currently plays for Class A Cedar Rapids.

When asked about the sibling rivalry, Trey mentioned how he hit his first professional home run before Tanner did. Not long after Trey went deep against Danville on July 12, Tanner followed suit vs. Bowling Green, leaving the yard on July 23.

"There's always that competition," said Trey, who credits his older brother for helping him choose baseball over hockey. "Hopefully, he can get six tomorrow. I'd love to see that."

Though Minnesota seemed like an obvious landing spot for Trey, he was not expecting the Twins to take him.

"I was actually shocked that I got drafted by them, because I was talking to everyone besides the Twins," he said. "I was shocked but I was really excited to get the opportunity to hopefully play with Tanner at the highest level and hopefully have my dad as a coach. And hopefully the little one [Terrin] will come along too."

Tyler Mautner homered and brought four runs in for Elizabethton, while Pat Kelly plated two and Tyler Kuresa added one. For Greeneville, Antonio Nunez and Jeffry Santos notched two RBIs apiece.

E-Twins starter Matt Batts (2-0) allowed just one run on two hits and a walk while fanning eight over six innings. Reymin Guduan (0-3) was charged with six runs -- four earned -- across 2 1/3 innings. He gave four hits, issued two walks and struck out three batters for the Astros.