LISBON — Saturday’s Mountain Valley Conference matchup between Winthrop and Lisbon figured to be a low-scoring pitcher’s duel featuring two of the conference’s top hurlers.

Winthrop had other ideas. The Ramblers roughed up Lisbon ace Kyle Bourget for 13 of its 14 hits, which was more than enough for lefty Ben Allen in a convincing 10-1 victory.

Allen, a senior, took more than he gave, rapping three hits and driving in four runs. On the mound, he battled through some early control issues to shut down the Greyhounds (10-3) after a rocky first inning.

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

The Ramblers (10-2) enjoyed contributions from virtually their entire lineup, particularly the bottom three hitters — Bennett Brooks, Jacob Hickey and Adam Hachey — who combined to go 7-for-12 with three RBIs and six runs scored.

“Adam and I just talked to each other and said let’s get going here,” said Hickey, who went 3-for-4 with a double, two RBIs and three runs scored. “We saw that (Bourget) was going with fastball mainly his first pitch so we wanted to really drive that to the outfield for hits.”

“They were hitting the ball. They were right on the dot,” Winthrop coach Marc Fortin said. “They’re all sophomores. It’s very important (having the bottom of the order produce). That’s the difference between a team that wins and a championship-caliber team. That’s where we think we are right now. We’re batting pretty solid one through nine.”

Bourget set down six of the first seven Winthrop batters before running into trouble in the third. Hickey led off with a line drive to center that the outfielder misjudged on a windy morning and Hickey ended up with a double. Hachey (2-for-4) moved him to third with a single and Allen drove him in with a sacrifice fly that tied it, 1-1.

Brooks (2-for-4, two runs), Hickey and Hachey hit consecutive one-out singles to put the Ramblers ahead in the third. Allen added an RBI single to make it 3-1.

“Kyle is probably the best pitcher in this conference, obviously a very good fastball and a very good curve ball,” Allen said. “The guys had some great at-bats today. We were very disciplined.”

Winthrop opened it up in the fifth with six runs thanks to an RBI single by Matt Ingram, a fielder’s choice that scored a hustling Brooks, and two-run singles by Hickey and Allen.

“Kyle got behind hitters early, and when you get behind hitters early, you can’t really rely on your fastball all of the way through,” Lisbon coach Randy Ridley said. “He got behind early, he had to throw a lot of fastballs and they’re a fastball hitting team.”

Allen needed some time to find his rhythm on the mound. His own wild throw to first on R.J. Sargent’s swinging bunt in the first inning preceded a walk and a pair of wild pitches, the second of which plated Sargent.

“The first inning is usually hard for me to get comfortable but I think once I got through the order the first time, I settled down and our defense was fantastic today,” said Allen, who went the distance, allowing three hits while striking out three, walking one and hitting a batter. “I credit a lot to that. I got a lot of one-pitch outs.”

“Ben, you could tell by his body language, was off his game,” Fortin said. “He’s been off his game for a couple of days now. He hasn’t been feeling good. But he worked out of it and once he got going, it was smooth sailing.”

Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638

rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com

Twitter: @RAWmaterial33

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