There might have been some doubts in Grace Academy’s dugout, but there was no quit.

That 7-1 regular-season record in District 5-A didn’t really do the Golden Eagles much good. They lost the district tournament’s top seeding on a run differential to David Brainerd. Then they were upset by Silverdale Baptist and had to fight back through the losers bracket to reach Friday’s championship games.

They left their mark on their 5-A counterparts and the walls at Engel Stadium, though, forcing a second championship game in an 18-12 slugfest and then winning the title 17-2 in five innings.

It was the Golden Eagles’ third straight district tournament championship.

“I knew if we finally woke up and started running the bases that we could make some things happen,” Grace coach Ruston Pierce said.

The Eagles stole seven bases in the second game, giving them 55 in five tournament games.

Wallace Foster went 3-for-5 with a home run and a double — good for three RBIs — in the first game and pitched a four-hitter in the second game, when he tripled and doubled off the aging Engel outfield wall, knocked in a run and scored two.

“Wallace is the best player we have ever had at Grace. I know people will talk about Brendan Murphy, and he was a great hitter, but all around, Wallace is the best,” Pierce said.

Foster struck out eight batters.

“I wanted the ball,” he said after pitching his third game in nine days. “We didn’t have that much pitching, but it was a lot of fun. My teammates are incredible.”

None was more incredible than center fielder Jarrad Peace. Although he was only 1-for-6, his home run ignited the Eagles’ first-game comeback. Scoring five runs in the bottom of the first, Silverdale found itself with two runners on and Foster coming to bat. They walked him to load the bases, figuring to take their chances with Peace. He responded with a grand-slam laser shot over the right-field wall that put his team up 6-5.

Silverdale regained the lead 8-6 but Grace put up five more in the top of the third, keyed by Foster’s two-run shot. They entered the top of the fifth needing two runs to nail down a 10-run edge and wound up scoring seven on the sagging Seahawks, who used four pitchers in each of the games.

In the two games, Foster went 5-for-9 and Alex Rose was 5-for-8.

Matt Jensen was the first-game winning pitcher. It was his first win of the season.