But it was the Ramblers who shook off the early-morning Memorial Day weekend wake-up call, pounding out 14 hits in a 10-1 win in windy and cool conditions.

Winthrop left Lisbon with a 10-2 record, while the Greyhounds fell to 10-3. Lisbon will host St. Dom’s on Tuesday and the Ramblers will face at Mt. Abram also on Tuesday.

In a contest billed as a battle of ace pitchers, Winthrop southpaw Ben Allen shook off a slow start to toss an 80-pitch three-hitter. On the other side, Lisbon’s Kyle Bourget didn’t have his best stuff and paid for it, surrendering 13 hits and nine earned runs in four-plus innings.

“Kyle got behind hitters early, and when that happens, you have to rely on your fastball,” Lisbon coach Randy Ridley said. “They hit and put the ball in play, and we didn’t. They made the plays. Today wasn’t our day.”

“My youngsters, everybody was just hitting the ball, and that is what you have to do,” Winthrop coach Marc Fortin said. “Ben was feeling good, and after he got going, he had enough today. His teammates made the plays behind him.”

Winthrop received big contributions from the bottom three hitters in the batting order.

“They are all sophomores,” said Fortin of Bennett Brooks (two singles, two runs scored), Jacob Hickey (two singles, double, three runs, two RBIs) and Adam Hachey (two singles, two RBIs, one run). “It was extremely important today.”

Down 1-0 in the third, Hickey doubled to the fence in center field and Hachey dropped a bunt single to set the table, with Allen’s sacrifice fly tying the game.

“In the third inning. it was 8-9-1, and Adam and I said that we need to get it going and we did,” Hickey said. “We wanted to drive (Kyle’s) fastball early and drive it to the outfield.”

Lisbon jumps on top

The Greyhounds took a 1-0 lead in their first swings. RJ Sargent reached on an Allen throwing error and Bourget walked. A wild pitch moved both runners up a base, and Sargent scored three pitches later when another pitch slipped to the backstop.

But Lisbon failed to take advantage of its early opportunities against Allen, leaving two runners on in the first and second frames.

“He got out of it early as we had a chance to get more runs in the first, and we had two runners in scoring position in the second and didn’t get the key hit,” Ridley said. “Allen battled and found his rhythm, and as a veteran pitcher he did what he was supposed to do.”

“The first inning is always hard for me to get comfortable, but once I got through the order the first time, I settled down and the defense was fantastic, with a lot of one-pitch outs,” said Allen, who struck out three, walked two and hit a batter. “Kyle is probably the best pitcher in this conference and our guys had some great at-bats today. We were very disciplined.”

Tied in the fourth, Brooks, Hickey, Hachey and Allen singled in succession for a 3-1 lead, and the Ramblers put this one away in the fifth with six more runs. The first seven hitters reached in the frame against Bourget, with Hickey and Allen each driving in two runs for a 9-1 advantage. Bourget struck out seven, with Tyler Halls finishing up with three innings of relief. Halls struck out four, walked one, permitted one hit and one unearned run in the seventh (a Matt Sekerak sacrifice fly to score Allen) to complete the scoring.

“This is our biggest win of the season so far,” Allen said. “That is a very good team over there.”

“We just lost to a good team. We have to rebound,” Ridley said.

Dakota Carter had two hits for Winthrop, while Ryley Austin, Sargent and Austin Fournier each singled for Lisbon.