Thursday night’s Gainesville at Trenton softball game was hyped as an All-SEC battle in the circle.

However, Gainesville’s Leanna Bourdage, a Texas A&M commit, didn’t pitch after throwing over 150 pitches on Tuesday night in a 5-4 home loss in 10 innings to rival Buchholz.

“She’s really just on the road to recovery, to be honest,” said GHS coach Chris Chronister. “She hasn’t really pitched a lot in the fall competitively, not really at all. So, yeah, that was the whole reason (number of pitches on Tuesday).”

Meanwhile, Trenton’s Addison Allaire, a University of Florida commit, was as good as advertised.

The junior pitcher struck out 16 batters and allowed just two hits and one walk as Trenton defeated GHS, 8-1, at John A. Vickers Field.

“Addi executing in the circle definitely helps make any night easier,” said Trenton coach Kevin Benson. “Girls played good defense behind her. I don’t think we had any fielding errors tonight, and we’re starting to mature a little bit more at the plate and make our adjustments at the plate a little faster in games than we did in the first couple of games we played through preseason. That and just our initial approach at the plate helps.”

Allaire began the game by striking out the side in order in the top of the first inning.

“I’m really proud of our team,” she said. “I think I did well, but I give all the credit to my teammates behind me. They’re always talking. Khloe (Kirby) is always loud. I love her. She’s been a really good help this year (catching). I’m just really proud of our team for sticking together, even though we had a really slow start, just picking it up and really keeping it going throughout the whole game.”

Bourdage started at first base, while senior Adriana Koralewski pitched a complete game for GHS.

“They had a little bit of a curve ball for us at the beginning there,” Benson said. “Of course, we expected to see Leanna. We knew she threw a lot on Tuesday, but in this game, you kind of expect to see the aces…the two programs are always competitive with each other, and then they throw another kid at us that definitely is not the velocity we were anticipating seeing, but she still is a very competitive pitcher and fills the zone up a lot. So making those adjustments pretty quick to sit back and wait a little bit took us a time through the lineup, but they made the adjustments to put the put the pressure on them later in the game.”

Trenton (2-0) did threaten early, though.

Sophomore Addilynn Welbers (3-for-3, RBI, 2 RS) and Bell transfer Alexsandra “Lexi” Faught (1-for-3, RS) walked to put two on with no one out.

Koralewski got Allaire to pop up to second for the first out and sophomore Emaleigh Philmon (2-for-3, RBI, RS) bunted, but got hit with the ball in fair territory for the second out.

Santa Fe (Alachua) transfer Montana Moen (1-for-4, DBL, 2 RBI) grounded out to second to end the inning.

Following Allaire’s fourth strikeout in a row to start the game, GHS senior Lana Renicks hit a blooper to right field that dropped in for a double.

Once again, the future Gator closed the door by striking out the next two batters to end the Gainesville threat to take the first lead of the game.

In fact, Allaire struck out every GHS player in the lineup 1-9 except for the No. 9 hitter.

Renicks got injured in the third inning when she dove for a ball that was hit sharply by Faught and bounced off of Brooke Parker at third base and hit Renicks in the wrist.

“I’m pretty sure that Brooke deflected the ball,” Chronister said. “It went off of her glove, and that’s probably why she didn’t have time to react, and it went off Lana’s wrist.”

Renicks, who started at shortstop, had to exit the game with two on and nobody out.

With Allaire at the plate, GHS catcher Emma Barton tried to pick off Welbers, who had slapped an infield hit over a drawn-in infield on the left side to start the top of the third inning.

However, a throw by Barton to third went down the left field line, allowing Welbers to score for a 1-0 lead.

“If our defense had played better, this would have been a much more competitive game,” Chronister said.

Barton was starting at catcher in place of Roxanne Walsh, who was out with the flu.

Faught scored the second run of the inning on a wild pitch, but Koralewski was able to strike out Moen and get catcher Khloe Kirby to fly out to center field to end the inning.

It didn’t take long for the Hurricanes (0-2) to answer as Bourdage crushed a ball to straightaway center field to cut the deficit in half.

“We threw a little change up and got her even though it wasn’t very pretty, but it happens,” Allaire said. “I missed one a little low. The strike zone was a little tight tonight, but it happens, she’s good, it’s okay.”

Allaire, who struck out Bourdage in the first, would win the rubber match between the two future SEC players with a sixth-inning strikeout of Bourdage. It was her 13^th K at the time.

Despite giving up her only walk of the game in the seventh inning, she still managed to strike out the side to end the game.

“I’m really excited,” Allaire said. “I think we have some young kids, but they’re really stepping into roles and really understanding that everybody has a role on this team, everybody has a part to play. And I think our chemistry is really good. I think it’s going to be a really fun year.”

Trenton put the game out of reach in the fourth with a five-run inning.

The Tigers batted around and had three consecutive batters drive in four of the runs.

Philmon had an infield hit that drove in a run, Moen singled in two runs, and Kirby added an infield hit and an RBI.

“That’s (Moen) one of those additions we got this year,” Benson said. “She’s got a ton of power, and she’s working hard to fix her timing at the plate, but when she times one up, she can make one ride for a long way. She just has a very mature softball IQ.”

GHS will travel to Forest (Ocala) on Wednesday, Feb.25, while Trenton will host Rural state semifinalist Branford (2-0) at 7 p.m. on Monday.