Baseball Game Preview: Columbia Tigers vs. Niceville Eagles

For the second straight game, Columbia will face off against Niceville. The Tigers will take on the Eagles at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (Columbia 3.9, Niceville 3.2) so any runs scored will be well earned.

Columbia heads in on the heels of a playoff contest on Wednesday. They fell just short of Niceville by a score of 2-1. Having soared to a lofty ten runs in the game before, the Tigers couldn't push the score so high this time.

For Niceville's part, Brady Martin spent all seven innings on the mound, and it's clear why: he surrendered only one earned run on four hits and racked up eight Ks. Martin has been nothing but reliable: he hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in 11 consecutive appearances.

On the hitting side, Deacon Avery was incredible, firing off two home runs while going 2-for-3. That's the most home runs he has posted since back in March.

Niceville is on a roll lately: they've won 12 of their last 13 games. That's provided a nice bump to their 26-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks in part to their hitting performance across that stretch, as they averaged 9.0 runs over those games. As for Columbia, they moved to 17-11 with that defeat, which also ended their four-game winning streak.