25NL: 44 vs shortstack OOP

[Frosteater]

Actually I like playing against shortstacks. Still there's this strange situation from time to time, where you have to make a decision more or less in the dark and this hand reminded me that I have serious difficulties to handle that.

Not too much of a read here, it was a short session and I took a few days off of poker, so parts of my game got even worse than they were before. FWIW, he was 35/23/4 over 75 hands and I was playing extremely unexciting at that table, VPIP around 10.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: 2+2 Forums)

saw flop|<font color="#C00000">saw showdown</font>

UTG ($7.70)
MP ($35.15)
CO ($16.85)
Button ($21.85)
SB ($18.40)
Hero ($37.95)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 4[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 4[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
<font color="#CC3333">UTG raises to $0.5</font>, <font color="#666666">4 folds</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Hero raises to $1.75</font>, UTG calls $1.25.

Flop: ($3.60) 7[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 2[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(2 players)</font>
Hero ?

Usually my line here is very simple with pocket pairs:
Get it in preflop.
I consider this +EV since I'm usually ahead of a typical shortstack's range, I negate any positional advantage he might have and even if I loose the hand, the loss is minimal and it's often not too complicated to win the money back plus interest.

Most of the times my opponents are kind enough to cooperate, not this time though and I felt a bit lost on the flop.
Our opponent just called preflop which would lead me to two deductions:

1. He's probably not giving much thought to terms like "fold equity" or "pot committed".
2. He likely favors a made hand a lot over a hand with potential and isn't comfortable putting money in with a hand that has to improve.

This probably has to influence my line here.

If I just check I probably have to fold to a bet. If I understood his preflop call right, this isn't too much of a problem, since he probably won't bet without an Ace. Still, I don't know for sure (or anything close to sure) and this weak line would feel very awkward, especially since a check-call would probably be a good line against certain opponents.

If I lead out, on the other hand, I probably get a good price versus a shove, so I can't profitably fold anymore. Which, again, is a problem, because if I estimated my opponent correctly, he's just going to fold everything I beat and shoves with everything I'm behind to.

So, what would you do here?