The Dos Pueblos High School varsity baseball team has started its season with a 12-3 overall record and a 5-2 league record. According to Logan Pearce (11), the boy’s hard work in practices has paid off during crucial matchups.

“There’s been a very hard work ethic around practices and preparing for games, and that has helped us improve majorly on our game,” Pearce said. ”It helps our readiness to actually go in the game and dominate.”

Additionally, Nick Salcido (11) said the team’s work in practices has led them to success.

“We haven’t had pretty games that still have resulted in wins,” Salcido said.”But those games it’s just us being a team and working together and competing and really playing for your other teammates, not really caring even if you do bad, still lifting everyone else up and just playing for each other.”

Salcido shared that the team has “lots of athletic background,” which has led to their great start to the season.

“A major X factor could definitely be our athleticism, I think our first three hitters are probably the three best athletes in Channel League, baseball-wise,” Salcido said. “Their ability to steal bases and hit the ball hard will help us.”

The team’s pregame preparation is vital to the success of the team, according to Di Maggio.

“Talking with the coaches and getting the scouting report ahead of games,” Mattias Di Maggio (9) said. “Being able to prepare for what I need to be able to do on game day is very important.”

The team is coached from the dugout by Deputy George Hedricks, who Di Maggio said has helped improve the mental aspects of the team’s performance, and emphasizes the importance of not letting mistakes add up.

“Our coaches set an example of a lot of hard work and diligence and not giving up when things don’t go your way, and perseverance,” Di Maggio said. “That’s probably been a really big factor of how well we’ve done so far.”

This year’s team has a lot of experienced players, with 20 upperclassmen and only five lowerclassmen.

“The lower classmen bring a critical spark—shout out to Matti Di Maggio, as he’s been great for us this season—but our lower classmen definitely have a lot to learn,” Pearce said. “They’re crucial for our team as a lot of our team is lower classmen, and they bring the energy. They’re always there, they’re always ready, and they’re all moving towards the same goal.”

Off the field, the team is “very tight-knit,” according to Salcido.

“I know a lot of the dudes have gone fishing together, we hit together on the weekends all the time, and especially in the off-season,” Salcido said. “We play a bunch of random things like basketball, and we go to the beach together.”

The team looks to continue their form away against San Marcos High School on Friday, March 27.