Leanna Bourdage is leaving her mark in the Gainesville High softball record book.

She has elevated the level of play in the circle.

Before she arrived as a freshman at GHS, the Hurricanes struggled with a team ERA of 5.76 in 2023.

Bourdage finished the 2024 season with a 0.57 earned run average and nine shutouts. In 136 innings pitched, she struck out 251 batters.

The junior was phenomenal in the postseason, too, including a no-hitter and 18 strikeouts at Middleburg to win the 5A-District 2 championship.

She also had 12 Ks and allowed only three hits, all singles, as GHS defeated Gulf Breeze, 3-0, on the road in the region final to advance to their first final four in eight years. She followed that up with 14 strikeouts in the 5A state semifinals.

Her pitching helped carry the ‘Canes from a 6-win team in 2023 to a 24-5 record and a state runner-up finish, a heartbreaking 3-2 loss in eight innings to top seed and defending state champion Parrish Community in the title game.

GHS knew it was on the road to something special.

But then an injury, which would eventually lead to surgery, limited her during her junior season.

Bourdage played sparingly, but not in the circle.

In fact, her first appearance as a pitcher wasn’t until Friday, April 18, when she tossed two innings against Newberry in a 7-1 win. She struck out all six batters that she faced and she was also 2-for-3 at the plate with three runs batted in.

In addition to switching sides at the plate because of the injury, she became more of a reliever.

She relieved Santa Fe College signee McKenna O’Sullivan and struck out all nine batters that she faced on a total of 34 pitches in a 5-1 win against Belleview in the FHSAA Class 5A-District 5 Semifinals.

That was followed by a 1-hitter in a 2-0 win at Deltona in the district championship game. She only faced 19 batters in relief with no walks and 12 strikeouts in six innings of work.

She pitched four innings of relief ball, struck out nine with only two walks in a 3-0 win against Belleview in the FHSAA Class 5A-Region 2 Quarterfinals.

Bourdage and O’Sullivan combined on a 1-hitter with a 1-0 win against Springstead in the regional semifinals. In three innings of relief, Bourdage allowed no runs or hits with no walks and eight strikeouts.

That helped the Hurricanes get within a game of a second straight final four before a 9-3 loss at eventual state champion Winter Springs in the region final.

Despite only pitching 24.2 innings, she made the Bosshardt Realty All Area big school softball team after walking only four with 57 strikeouts. She only allowed five earned runs and finished with a 1.42 ERA.

“It was a tough season for Leanna this year due to injury, but she is a difference maker in the circle,” GHS coach Chris Chronister said at the end of her sophomore season. “Her injury also forced her to hit from the left side this year and she was still able to maintain a .400 batting average. She is a great competitor and has a warrior mentality.”

Despite just 38 at-bats, her ability to switch sides at the plate paid dividends as she batted .400 with 14 hits and six runs batted in. She led the team with 10 stolen bases.

In late September, she officially announced her commitment to play at Texas A&M University, joining Trenton’s Addison Allaire, a University of Florida commit and her travel ball teammate.

On March 26, the two future SEC players went head-to-head and combined for 33 strikeouts.

The game went into extra innings and Bourdage won the game, 1-0, with a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth. She also pitched all nine innings, allowing no runs on four hits with five walks and 13 strikeouts.

Bourdage, one of the top 10 athletes to watch in Alachua County for 2025-26, reached a milestone last week with her 500^th strikeout in a 7-6 win against Deltona in the 5A-District 5 championship game despite battling illness.

“Hitting this milestone meant so much to me,” she said. “I am confident I would have hit it last year if it weren’t for my injury, but I’m thankful for the trials and the growth that I’ve shown. This is just a small accomplishment in my journey, and I can’t wait for what is next. Go Canes and Gig ‘Em.”

She is now on pace to pass Chronister’s daughter, Katie, who went on to play at the University of Florida, where she was a part of three SEC Championships and made three consecutive Women’s College World Series appearances.

Chronister, who led the Hurricanes to the Class 7A state title during her senior season, their first in program history, finished with 725 strikeouts and is second all-time at GHS. She was the Florida Dairy Farmers Class 7A Player of the Year and Miss Softball runner-up during her senior year.

“Leanna reaching 500 strikeouts is a great accomplishment at this point in her career,” Chronister said. “She has shown a great deal of fortitude these past couple of years. It hasn’t been easy, but it really shows the hard work she has put in to get to this place.”

The record belongs to Alissa Humphrey (972 strikeouts), a 4-year starter who led James Madison University to the 2021 Women’s College World Series as a freshman.

Making the feat even more impressive is that Humphrey only threw 47 innings in the 2020 shortened season (COVID-19) and still finished with 106 strikeouts that year, as well as a 0.00 ERA through seven games.

All three were great hitters, too.

This season, Bourdage is second on the team with a .345 average. She leads the team with a .439 on base percentage, a .564 slugging percentage, two home runs and is tied for the team lead with Adriana Koralewski with six doubles.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Gainesville’s Class 7A state title in 2016.

The No. 2 seed Hurricanes will face No. 7 seed Deltona again at 7 p.m. on Thursday. Except this time, it’s win or go home in the 5A-Region 2 Quarterfinals.

“We are excited to be in the regional playoffs, but it is unfortunate that we are matched up with Deltona again,” Chronister said. “It would be nice if you didn’t have to play a district opponent in the first round of regionals, but that is the way the seeding played out. We will do everything we can to be prepared to play on Thursday night. We were fortunate to get the win last week to set us up with a home game.”

FHSAA softball state playoffs

(teams in the Mainstreet coverage area in bold)

All games at 7 p.m. unless noted

Wednesday, May 6 (Classes 1A-4A)

Class 2A-Region 2 Quarterfinals

3 Cornerstone Charter Academy (Belle Isle) at 6 Newberry, 6:30 p.m.

7 Keystone Heights at Montverde Academy

Class 3A-Region 1 Quarterfinals

7 Suwannee (Live Oak) at 2 Paxon (Jacksonville)

Class 3A-Region 2 Quarterfinals

8 Mount Dora at 1 Sant Fe (Alachua)

Class 4A-Region 1 Quarterfinals

8 Escambia (Pensacola) at 1 Columbia (Lake City), 6 p.m.

Class 6A-Region 1 Quarterfinals

6 Buchholz at 3 Navarre, 6 p.m. (CST)

Thursday, May 7 (Rural & Classes 5A-7A)

Rural-Region 3 Semifinals

3 Union County (Lake Butler) at 2 Branford

Rural-Region 4 Semifinals

4 Bronson at 1 Trenton

3 Williston at 2 Fort Meade

Class 5A-Region 2 Quarterfinals

7 Deltona at 2 GHS