The De Anza Dons baseball team is off to an extremely strong 4-1 start to the season. Despite not having a home field, the team pulled off two wins against a tough Yuba College team and split with Folsom Lake College.

“We’ve been kind of over achieving in a lot of people’s minds, other than ours, but it’s going really well so far,” Devon Canty, 19, shortstop and communications major said.

Canty said he is excited for the rest of the season.

“We look really good and have a lot of good guys; a lot more talent than last year, and a lot better team chemistry.”

Coach Erick Raich also likes the composition of this year’s team.

“Last year’s group was four sophomores and all freshman, this year we’re about fifty-fifty,” Raich said. “That part is great so we don’t have to worry about a huge amount of turnover, and we’ll have good core group of returners next year.”

The De Anza baseball field is currently being used for the drop and go parking lot, so the team is practicing at Shoreline Baseball Field in Mountain View, and will use it for home games later on. Most of their games are being played away.

“[Shoreline Field] is all turf, so there’s no prep time; with the rain that’s come right now if we had to pick a year to be off-campus, this would be the year,” Raich said. “It’s somewhat been a blessing in disguise.”

Canty said he does not mind playing away from De Anza, but he finds the constant road trips exhausting.

Raich said he believes the team can keep up their strong start as long as they stay injury free.

“Last year we were in first place with two and a half weeks to go, and we lost four of our key starters – two starting pitchers and two extremely important relief pitchers,” Raich said. “If we don’t have any crazy injuries we should be OK as long as we don’t lose four arms again like last year!”

Both Raich and Canty called out Drew Mount, outfielder, as one of the players excelling this season.

“He’s just been tearing the cover off the ball,” Raich said. “Two home runs already and he stole a few bags.”

Canty jokingly said that he deserved some credit for Mount’s success, having worked with him prior to the season start.

Overall, Raich is impressed with all of his players.

“We have a lot of guys performing well, guys that have gotten off to really good statistical starts,” he said. “But I would say top to bottom, every single one of our guys is playing really well right now.”