Baseball Game Preview: Niceville Eagles vs. Daphne Trojans

The Niceville Eagles will venture away from home to square off against the Daphne Trojans at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Niceville has five straight victories, Daphne has three straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the field.

Niceville proved they can win big on Tuesday (they won by 12) and on Thursday they proved they can win the close ones too. They came out on top in a nail-biter against Baldwin County, sneaking past 11-10. The pitching woes were uncharacteristic for the Eagles, who until this contest were averaging 3.6 runs allowed.

Landon Hawkins looked comfortable as he struck out eight batters over four innings while giving up just one earned (and two unearned) runs off two hits. He has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in five consecutive appearances.

Deacon Avery

Home Runs

03/06/25 vs Baldwin County	2
03/04/25 @ Choctawhatchee	1
02/27/25 @ Mosley	1

At the plate, the team relied heavily on Deacon Avery, who fired off two home runs, five RBI, and three runs while getting on base in all five of his plate appearances. He has been hot recently, having posted at least one home run the last three times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Jackson Marquardt, who scored two runs and stole a base while going 4-for-4.

Niceville was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .375. The team's really been improving in that area: they've now improved their batting average total in five consecutive matches.

Meanwhile, Daphne came up short against Gulf Breeze on Thursday and fell 5-2.

Niceville pushed their record up to 9-1 with the win, which was their third straight at home. The wins came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 9.0 runs over those games. As for Daphne, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-3.