Eagle Point's Cruz Jimenez connects for an RBI single during the fifth inning against Southridge Tuesday evening.

For a baseball program that hasn’t reached the state playoffs in eight years and is coming off its first winning season in at least a decade, creating a belief system isn’t easy and certainly doesn’t come overnight.

But that 14-12 season of a year ago lent a flicker of hope for Eagle Point, which barely combined for as many wins in three prior seasons combined.

If that served as a first step, this week’s showing at the Crater Spring Break Tournament has supplied a huge building block toward greater success.

The Eagles completed a perfect 4-0 run through the two-day event with another pair of victories Tuesday evening, 5-2 over McDaniel and 7-4 over Southridge in games played at Eagle Point High.

In the latter, Eagle Point (7-1) was able to generate all seven of its runs against the Skyhawks (4-2) during a wild fifth inning that put the Eagles in position to earn their fifth win in a row.

“It’s a good feeling,” said EP head coach Tyson Wolfe after the tourney sweep. “We’ve been working hard all offseason to change the culture out here.”

“Our motto is really that you choose whether you’re going to be the question mark or the check mark,” he added, “and our kids have bought into that big-time in the weight room, in the offseason and going into the season with the amount of time they’ve put in. We’ve got a really young group and they’ve bought in and they’re baseball players. It’s all about the kids, man, they’ve put a lot of work into it.”

Things weren’t looking entirely promising heading into the bottom of the fifth inning, with Southridge holding a 4-0 lead despite recording only three hits at that point.

A leadoff flare that dropped in for a hit by sophomore Braden Nugent was followed by a line drive from freshman Collin Stockton to put runners on the corners for the Eagles. An RBI double by sophomore Sean McFall finally put EP on the scoreboard, and then it just seemed like the floodgates opened.

“We finally had a game where we were able to string together consecutive hits,” said Wolfe. “In those innings the hits kind of snowball and our offense finally woke up.”

Mason DeVry, Cruz Jimenez and Luca Fazio managed RBI singles for the Eagles, but the biggest blow came when junior Brendan Rullamas sliced a flyball to right field that wound up creating a three-run error.

“We really couldn’t figure out if their kid may have lost it in the lights or if he closed his glove or something before the ball was in there,” said Wolfe, “but it cleared the bases. It was a tough play for him running in because it was kind of a little left-to-right ball hit to right field.”

McFall carried that momentum back onto the mound, where he had taken over in the top of the fifth inning and wound up holding Southridge hitless with three strikeouts and no walks over the final three frames.

“Sean McFall pitched the last three innings with us being down 4-0 and literally shut them down,” said Wolfe. “He’s been solid for us, and that’s a big key. Our pitching has been pretty good for the most part — we’ve got guys that have gone the distance and we’ve also had moments where we couldn’t throw strikes and our hitting has helped us — but Sean McFall has done a really good job at leading the team from behind the dish and at the plate and being able to throw strikes and come in and close games down.”

Earlier in the day against McDaniel, Jimenez pitched a complete game with three hits allowed, striking out three to help combat six walks. He also joined Nugent in each supplying two hits and one RBI in another comeback victory.

While strong starts to the spring haven’t been uncommon for Eagle Point over the years, the fact that the Eagles have been able to do that this year against more proven Class 6A and 5A opponents offers a different feeling.

“This was more of a test, for sure,” Wolfe said of a tourney that also included wins over Glencoe and Corvallis. “We’re finally turning the page of the culture here. We were flat (against Southridge) but we were still engaged and in the game. I don’t know how many guys we left on base tonight just in this game but, overall, we’ve been bases loaded and second and third on numerous occasions and we finally got through it. It was really exciting to see.”

McDaniel 020 000 0 — 2 3 2

Eagle Point 002 120 x — 5 7 2

Robison, Davis (5), Baker (6) and DeYoung; Jimenez and McFall. W — Jimenez. L — Robison. 2B — EP: Taylor, Jimenez, Fazio.

Southridge 010 300 0 — 4 3 3

Eagle Point 000 070 x — 7 7 1

Hauck, Carlton (4), Barragan (5), Burroughs (6) and Otani; Nugent, McFall (5) and McFall, Stockton (5). W — McFall. L — Carlton. 2B — S: Otani; EP: McFall, DeVry.

NORTH MEDFORD 4, FOREST GROVE 2: At Beaverton, Jake Payton hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the second inning to get 10th-ranked North Medford off to a good start and Jeremiah Robbins struck out six with one walk and scattered seven hits on Day 2 of the Westview Tournament.

Both runs against Robbins were unearned after three errors by the Black Tornado (6-1), which was coming off one of its best defensive efforts thus far.

Ben Morgan also drove in a run against Forest Grove (2-4) in the game played at Mountainside High.

Forest Grove 001 001 0 — 2 9 1

North Medford 021 100 x — 4 7 3

Hundley, Munoz-Cooper (6) and Thatcher; Robbins, Willer (7) and Newberg, Robbins (7). W — Robbins. L — Hundley. 2B — NM: Robbins, Rutigliano. HR — NM: Payton (1).

SOUTH MEDFORD 9, GALENA 8: At Reno, Nev., South Medford picked up a costly win on Day 2 of the Coach Bob Invitational, using a six-run first inning to put Galena High on its heels before needing a bases-loaded pop-up to first base to silence a comeback bid.

In between, however, Panthers leadoff batter Kyle Cope was hit by a pitch in the second inning and is feared to be lost for the season due to fracture in his wrist/forearm area.

Evan Rhoden ripped a three-run double and South Medford (3-2) got RBI efforts by Gannen Jones and Chance Ryan to help build its first-inning lead.

After Galena racked up five runs in the third inning, the Panthers scored what would be another key outburst with three runs in the fifth inning to go ahead 9-5. Tristan Mallari got it all started with a leadoff double and later scored on an RBI double by Grady McQuillan. Ryan also added an RBI.

Mallari struck out nine and allowed seven hits, five runs — three earned — and two walks in five innings on the mound. Jedidiah Robertson came on in relief and got into a jam in the top of the seventh before inducing a final pop-up to Rhoden.

Galena 005 001 2 — 8 11 3

South Medford 600 030 x — 9 9 3

Talonen, Cordell (5) and Fairman; Mallari, Robertson (6) and Long. W — Mallari. L — Talonen. 2B — G: Fairman 2, Wilson; SM: Rhoden, Mallari, McQuillan.

CHOWCHILLA 6, CRATER 5: At Fresno, Calif., Crater junior Carter Fuhrman ripped a two-run double to tie the game in the top of the seventh inning but Chowchilla High of California was able to use a two-out error and ensuing walk-off single to claim the Fresno Easter Classic victory.

Fuhrman finished 2-for-2 with a walk for the Comets (2-4), while Hayden Kindreich and Morgan Austin each scored twice.

Crater 200 000 3 — 5 4 5

Chowchilla 111 101 1 — 6 10 5

Fisher, Snopl (2) and Melvin, Morgan; Grissom, Deatheridge (6) and Lopez. W — Deatheridge. L — Snopl. 2B — C: Fuhrman; CH: Lopez, Stevenson, Watkins.