Valparaiso’s DJ Malloy is ready for his final bow.
At least as a high school baseball player.
“It’s a big season, senior season, so I want to go out with a bang,” he said.
Malloy already has filled his resume with accomplishments. He’s in his fourth year as the starting second baseman for the Vikings, and he has elevated his batting average each season. He hit a team-best .408 with 22 RBIs and 17 runs scored last year, when Valparaiso won its first state title, as well as its first regional and semistate titles.
Malloy, who went 2-for-4 with three RBIs in the Vikings’ 5-0 victory against Evansville North in the Class 4A state championship game, savored that experience at Victory Field in Indianapolis.
“It was just breathtaking,” he said. “When you get there, you’re stepping on a Triple-A field. You’re just speechless when you get there because you’re playing on a great field, a great surface. I was coming into there really confident because I was swinging the bat well, and it showed there too.”
There’s nothing Malloy would like to do more than recapture that feeling. A talented senior class graduated, led by star Caden Crowell, a freshman at Notre Dame. But Malloy’s objective remains the same as he takes over the team’s primary leadership responsibilities, along with senior Trent Gill, who is in his fourth season as the starting shortstop.
“We lost a lot of guys from last year, but our seniors know their roles,” Malloy said. “We have a really good chance of succeeding. We work hard. We get pushed by the coaches and by me and Trent.
“We’ve been pushing because we want to go back to back. That’s our motto this year. That’s the goal, the one goal, to go back to back.”
Malloy has prepared for that. He said he’s bigger and stronger this season, having gained 15 pounds. He fine-tuned his mechanics. He’s more confident.
It’s a far cry from when Malloy debuted as a freshman.
“I’m not going to lie, I didn’t expect to be on varsity my freshman year,” Malloy said. “I knew Trent was because he was committed to IU and he did well in workouts. But it was really exciting when I got the news.
“I just knew I had to get to work. Being a young guy and solidifying my spot there was great. I just worked my butt off. Being on the field all the time, hitting all the time, I just worked my butt off. I just fell in love with the process.”
Malloy and Gill have developed a close bond that predates their time together in the Vikings’ middle infield.
“We know what to expect from each other,” Gill said. “When we’re playing up the middle together, we know exactly what we’re going to do together. He holds me accountable, and I hold him accountable.
“He’s just a good leader. He expects a lot of the young guys. Same with me. We’re just a really good one-two punch. It’s been that way forever.”
Valparaiso coach Todd Evans also has seen the growth from Malloy. He said he’s been “spoiled” by having Malloy and Gill holding down those positions throughout their careers.
“He’s impressive,” Evans said of Malloy. “He’s solid offensively and defensively. He’s exactly what you’d hope for from a guy who’s been around as long as he has.
“Experience-wise, with a lot of young guys, it’s good to have a guy like him and a guy like Trent to look up to, maybe bend their ear a little bit, like ‘What’s going on?’ The expectation is there. They achieved it to the highest level. Last year, we wanted to make sure we had state championship-level practices every day, and they know what that entails.”
Malloy is focused on this season, but he intends to play in college. Purdue Northwest and Benedictine are his top choices at this point.
“Gill is a Division I baseball player,” Evans said. “As far as I’m concerned, DJ is a Division I baseball player. They make the crazy plays look routine. Like the state championship game, it was like ‘Yep. Yep. That’s how we play.’
“They’ve set the bar so high, which is good. These younger guys see the way they play, how they make plays, and they’re like, ‘I need to be able to do that to be successful.’ It’s really cool.”
Malloy has embraced the challenge.
“I’m just excited for the season,” he said. “I just want to take more strides this year and for years to come. I know I’m going to have to prove myself again in college, and I still don’t take anything for granted here.”
