A year after reaching the Elite 8 for the first time in more than a decade, Niceville baseball isn’t slowing down.
- The Eagles are 4-0 to start the season, with road wins over Choctaw and Navarre already on their résumé. Both opponents figure to be tough outs again this year — Choctaw reached the Sweet 16 last season — but it was the way Niceville won that has head coach Justin Bruce feeling good about his team’s makeup.
Against Navarre, the Eagles trailed 8-1 heading into the third inning before storming back for a 12-10 victory. Against Choctaw, things got shaky in the seventh, but Niceville made the plays it needed to close it out.
“It’s early, we have a lot of new faces, and a game like Monday night where you’re down 8-1 at the beginning of the third inning, but you punch back and win the game 12-10 — it shows that there’s some toughness, it shows that there’s some young guys stepping up in big moments,” Bruce said. “Every time we play Choctaw, they’re going to fight until the very end. It’s an in-county rival game, it’s a big early rival game for us, and in the seventh inning it got kind of shaky, but we made some plays to get out of it. It just shows that this team keeps fighting and they find ways to get it done.”
That resilience is what has impressed Bruce the most through the season’s opening weeks.
- “Just them being able to battle and be tested early — there’s been a lot of good stuff that’s happened so far,” he said.
The 2025 season was a breakthrough year for the program under Bruce, now in his fourth year at the helm. The Eagles made the playoffs for the first time since 2021, won their first playoff game since 2008 and advanced all the way to the Elite 8 before falling to Lincoln in a three-game series after winning Game 1.
Niceville lost several key contributors from that run, including two-way star Hunter Tarchalski, who is now at Northwest Florida State, Suwannee-bound Nick Gates and pitcher Reilly Six. But the Eagles return plenty of talent, headlined by the unquestioned face of the program: senior Deacon Avery.
Avery, who is committed to Coastal Carolina — the defending College World Series runner-up — hit 11 home runs last season, the most in Class 5A and tied for fourth in the state of Florida. He’s off to a solid start in 2026 as well, recording five hits and a home run through four games.
Bruce said Avery’s impact goes well beyond the batter’s box.
- “Everything — character, coming out every day being a leader. He’s the heart and soul of this team,” Bruce said. “The guys come out and follow him. He’s a great player, and he’s going to play for a long time.”
Avery anchors a deep lineup that includes CJ Bolden, who tallied 34 hits last season, along with promising two-way players Ethan Thomas and Caeden Stephens. Boston Browning, Ryder Hodgkinson, Thomas Radliff and Lincoln Broussard round out the hitting core.
On the mound, senior Aahron Geleta leads the rotation after an impressive outing against Marianna in which he struck out 11 batters. He also pitched well against Milton. Sean Britton, Stephens, Radliff and Thomas provide additional arms.
Bruce acknowledged the bullpen has been battling through injuries early on and said he wants to see more consistency from his relief pitchers as the season progresses.
“We’ve got to throw strikes and we’ve got to defend the baseball,” Bruce said. “If we can do those things, it’ll be a fun run.”
