Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Trent Hoogerwerf doesn’t remember too many specific details from his freshman season.  

The Regina catcher fully admits that lapse in memory is mostly by design.

Hoogerwerf didn’t exactly load up on personal highlights during his varsity debut season, hitting just .189 two seasons ago.

“Honestly, I don’t remember a lot,” Hoogerwerf said of his first varsity season. “I was just a little freshman trying to hit varsity pitching for the first time.”

The selective memory doesn’t mean Hoogerwerf didn’t take something away from his first season of varsity action.

In fact, that season is a big reason why Hoogerwerf has established himself as one of the top backstops in Class 2A this season.

“He’s come a long way,” Regina coach Jeff Pacha said. “A lot of credit goes to him because he saw that first season what he had to get better at and he has worked year-round at it.”

After a season to mostly forget as a freshman, Hoogerwerf has put together one to remember this season.

A .247 hitter over the last two seasons Hoogerwerf enters Saturday’s District 10 final against Mid-Prairie (16-14) hitting a career-high .376 for ninth-ranked Regina (25-7).

“I feel like I’ve come a long way but I still have work to do,” Hoogerwerf said. “I definitely learned a lot my first two years.”

Hoogerwerf got pressed into action as a freshman along with classmates Mitch Gahan, Ryan Schott and Nick Brandt as Regina went 15-15 one year removed from a state tournament appearance.

For Hoogerwerf and the rest of the young Regals that season was as much about learning as anything else.

“It was a little frustrating,” Hoogerwerf said. “He knew we were young, our whole team was young with like five freshman starters, (coach) told us to keep working on the process and it will pay off.”

Hoogerwerf showed progress last season hitting .283 with 27 RBI but has broken through as an upperclassmen.

The .376 average and 25 RBI for Hoogerwerf this season rank second on the team and he has scored a career-high 23 runs.

“He has always been able to handle velocity really well and where he struggled early was staying back on a ball,” Pacha said. “Truthfully he has done a really good job becoming an all-around hitter.” 

Part of the current success for Hoogerwerf has been the past experience of the last two seasons.

A bigger part has been simply getting bigger.

Hoogerwerf estimated he was 5-foot-9, 150-pounds when he made his varsity debut in 2015.

The junior now stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 205 pounds.

He credits the physical growth partly to growing up but mostly to a dedicated effort to improve his strength.

“My dad was a trainer back in the day so he really pushed me to get in the weight room,” Hoogerwerf said. “That has really helped me.”

The increased size and strength is impossible to miss both watching Hoogerwerf behind the plate or in the batters box or in his state line.

After producing 10 extra-base hits in 194 combined at bats in his first two seasons combined, Hoogerwerf has 13 extra-base hits this season including his first career home run.

“Defensively there has never been any question he has always been really good but offensive he knew he had to continue to improve,” Pacha said. “Understanding that as big and strong as a kid as he is he doesn’t have to try to generate power. He just has to let his hands do the work and be able to hit to all fields. That is where he has made the biggest adjustment.”

An increase in power hasn’t affected Hoogerwerf’s ability to put the ball in play, it has actually improved it.

Hoogerwerf drew 17 walks and struck out 49 times in his first two seasons including 31 strikeouts last year.

This season he has walked 16 times and struck out only 11 in 101 at bats.

“I think picking up the off-speed pitch has been big,” The last two years I had 30 something strikeouts on curve balls and I’ve been able to do a much better job of picking that up this year.”

Hoogerwerf has been as consistent as he has been productive. He has hit in 23 of 32 games this season and has 10 multi-hit games while starting every game behind the plate.

“This whole group were all out here as a freshman and I will give him credit too when you have been starting as a freshman and you are a junior two years later it’s easy to say I’ve got my spot but this group has not been satisfied,” Pacha said. “This is the hardest working group I have ever been a part of and Trent has been a big part of that.”