Hi-Line Athlete Profile: Trenton Maloughney, Havre Northstars

This Saturday at Legion Field, the Havre Northstars American Legion baseball club will host a doubleheader against the Medicine Hat Knights. As the last regular season games at home, the Northstars will hold their senior day where they will honor seniors such as Trenton Maloughney. While the Northstars will get to play at home next weekend as they host the district tournament, Maloughney knows this Saturday will be emotional.

"It's going to be pretty bittersweet," Maloughney said. "It's going to be kind of weird that it'll be my last doubleheader up at Legion since I've played a lot of those. So I think it'll definitely be emotional."

Maloughney has played baseball since the age of five. He always found himself playing with the wiffle ball outside. He also had the help of his dad, who was one of his tee-ball coaches. Ever since then, he has just fallen more in love with the game.

"I think it's just a super pure sport," Maloughney said. "There's a lot of beauty in baseball."

In his final year with the team, the Northstars have been having a solid season with strong play as of late. The Northstars are 30-18-1 this season and have gone 8-1-1 in their last 10 games. With several players competing in spring sports earlier in the season, Maloughney knew their best baseball would not come until around this time when everyone would be contributing.

"It seems like these last two years, this is the time where we start turning it on a little bit," Maloughney said. "I think the last couple of weeks we've really started hitting the ball more. I think we've started to find out that it's going to take us more than 10 hits a game to win and our pitchers have gone really deep into games for us."

Maloughney has made the most out of his final season with the Northstars. At the plate, he has a .267 batting average, a .391 on-base percentage and 22 RBIs this summer. He has also gotten time on the mound with 44 innings pitched. In his 11 appearances, he has recorded a 3.182 ERA and 37 strikeouts. Despite his success on the field, he has mostly enjoyed getting to spend one more season with his teammates.

"I've really enjoyed just taking it all in and just being around the guys," Maloughney said. "This is a group that's been together for a long time so just realizing that this is the last ride, I've just been taking it in and enjoying making new memories with these guys."

Baseball is not the only sport that Maloughney competed in during high school. This past year, Maloughney played quarterback for the Havre High football team and he played tennis for the HHS tennis team that finished third at state.

Once the season is over, Maloughney plans on attending Montana State University-Northern to go into the plumbing program. Once he is done with the program, he wants to stay in Havre to work as a plumber.

The Northstars will hold their senior day this weekend at Legion Field. Before they wrap up their regular season, the Havre Daily News got the chance to ask Maloughney five questions.

HDN: As a senior, what kind of impact do you make on the team?

Maloughney: "I think I've made a pretty good impact on the team, I think that the senior class as a whole, I think we bring a lot of leadership and we're a pretty veteran team. I think we lead by example and we just steer them in the right direction."

HDN: What do you look forward to about these last few weeks with the Northstars?

Maloughney: "I'm just super excited that we're going to be able to host districts here, have our home crowd and be able to sleep in our own beds, so I think that's going to be awesome. To be able to see Medicine Hat this Saturday on senior day, I'm pretty excited for them because they haven't been up here in a couple years so I'm excited to get those guys. I think Havre always puts on a good tournament, so I'm pretty excited to see how we'll do."

HDN: What is the hardest part about baseball?

Maloughney: "Probably the length of the season and just how many games you're going to be playing each summer. I think that's definitely the toughest part. Being able to stay in it for the entire season."

HDN: What's the most important thing you learned from your time with the Northstars?

Maloughney: "One thing that I've probably picked up from being with the Northstars is that you have to bring it every day. It's a lot of games in a pretty short amount of time and you don't really have a chance to take days off. You have to play the right baseball at the right time so I think that's one thing I've learned, it's to be consistent and just be accountable to yourself."

HDN: During your high school career, what was it like playing multiple sports throughout the year?

Maloughney: "It was pretty tough. There wasn't much of a gap between seasons so that was always tough, but I love playing sports. I made so many great friendships and bonds with all the players and coaches in each sport, so I'm really happy I did it and I think that I would do it all over again."