On Thursday night, we got the much-anticipated matchup we hoped for, and it lived up to expectations.

University of Florida commit Addison Allaire and Texas A&M University commit Leanna Bourdage went head-to-head in the circle and combined for 33 strikeouts.

“It was huge,” Bourdage said. “I mean, this is some of the competition I’ll face in college, obviously, so it’s a good start for me. Great team. Awesome. Thankfully, we just came out with the win.”

The game went into extra innings and Bourdage won the game, 1-0, with a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth.

“We’re letting Addi call her own pitches this year, and she threw what she was confident in throwing,” said Trenton coach Kevin Benson. “Leanna, she just executed herself, so you’ve got to tip your hat sometimes to the opponent when they execute.”

It was the only hit given up by Allaire, who struck out the side in order five times and finished with 20 strikeouts.

“My rise ball was working well,” she said after the game. “I really just came into today, just really wanting to be loose, trust my stuff, just trust myself…but my rise ball was working well.”

Trenton also faced the No. 1 freshman pitcher in the country on Tuesday, a 4-3 walk-off win in nine innings against Santa Fe (Alachua) and Rylee “Roo” Swilley, who is teammates with Allaire during the summer.

Santa Fe is ranked No. 2 in Class 3A.

“We schedule these games for a reason,” Benson said. “We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to execute in big games and prepare for postseason play. You want to have some experience executing in these back-to-back big games like this, so the girls have a little bit of experience of the pressure when it comes to postseason play.”

Allaire, who is 7-1 with a 0.94 earned run average (ERA) and only 10 walks with 137 strikeouts in 66.2 innings pitched, appreciated the competition this week.

“Yes, this is definitely a game we need,” she said. “Obviously, there’s a couple good teams around here, but it’s really good to see these teams like Leanna or GHS and Rylee from Santa Fe. We had a tough week, but I think we did pretty well. Obviously, it’s a tough loss to end the week, but we’ll come back better next week.”

The Tigers, who have won back-to-back state titles, have lost two games by a total of two runs, including a 3-2 loss at Class 4A No. 3 Columbia (Lake City) on March 12.

“It just makes you realize what you need to work on,” Allaire said. “I think we know we need to go back to practice and just really focus on the little things, because I think that’s what got us tonight. We just really need to focus in on what we need to work on.”

Benson holds them to a higher standard, which is why they were running sprints after last night’s loss.

“We had a bunch of missed bunts, a couple of strikeouts looking, including myself, but he holds us accountable for our mistakes, and I think that makes us understand that we did make a mistake and we need to get better,” Allaire said. 

Trenton (12-2), which is ranked No. 7 overall in Florida regardless of classification, hosted and defeated GHS, 8-1, on Feb. 19, but Bourdage didn’t pitch that night after throwing 156 pitches in a 5-4 loss in 10 innings against Buchholz two days earlier.

Gainesville’s win against Trenton, coupled with a rematch coming up against Buchholz, is a big motivator for the Class 5A No. 14 Hurricanes (7-6).

“It’s going to push the team to work even harder,” said Bourdage (31 walks & 115 strikeouts in 63.1 IP), who is 5-3 with a 0.77 ERA. “Losing to Buchholz to start the season was a tough one for us. We’re ready. It’s not going to be a 10-inning game. It’s going to be a seven-inning game, or maybe a five-inning game if we run-rule them. Our bats are going to be hot and we’ll be ready.”

Buchholz (10-2), which has won seven in a row heading into tonight’s game at Chiles (Tallahassee), will host the ‘Canes at 7 p.m. on Tuesday with a chance to sweep the 2-game series.

Two years ago, the Bobcats defeated the Hurricanes, 16-5, to snap a 19-game losing streak to their rival.

“That was not a good effort on our part defensively in that game against Buchholz the first time we played them,” Chronister said. “Hopefully, we bring a better energy this time.”

GHS lost at eventual state champion Winter Springs in last year’s region final following their state championship game appearance in 2024, their first since winning the Class 7A state title in 2016.

However, it has been a slow start for the ‘Canes in 2026.

“This (win against top-ranked Trenton) proves, should prove to them, that they can play with any team in the state,” Chronister said. “Everybody knows Trenton is a good team, and for us to be able to play a game like this against them, hopefully gives our team confidence. I have confidence in them. They need to have that confidence in themselves.”