WINTHROP — There were many cold hands on an afternoon with sub-50 temperatures, ripping winds and a period of rain Thursday at Winthrop High School.

Not Trent Collin’s, though. His right arm was as hot as hot as can be — and that along with a six-run fourth inning for the Winthrop baseball team was enough to lift the Ramblers to a 7-4 victory over Hall-Dale.

Collin struck out 14 batters for Winthrop in six innings, allowing just two earned runs. Jaxon August and Brody Adams had two hits apiece for the Ramblers, which had seven as a team.

“I just had to lock in (in the rain and cold), that’s for sure. … You just keep throwing, don’t sit down and don’t stop moving — just keep moving and keep going,” Collin said. “It’s a lot of work and a lot of offseason training. It felt good, though.”

Winthrop (2-1) scored first in the bottom of the first inning as a based-loaded walk brought in August, who had doubled to start the frame. The Ramblers held that lead into the fourth before a single, an error and a wild pitch — Collin’s only real mistake of the game — brought in two Hall-Dale runs.

Yet the Ramblers wouldn’t find themselves trailing very long. A Jackson O’Hearn single to begin the bottom of the fourth proved to be the start of something for Winthrop, which scored six runs on four hits and three Hall-Dale (1-1) errors. It was an inning that saw truly everything, including a run that came in on a balk.

Winthrop pitcher Trent Collin throws to a Hall-Dale batter during a baseball game Wednesday in Winthrop. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

“We had a tough time with (Hall-Dale starting pitcher) Ben Nathan last year, and I don’t know if it was just a mental thing, but he’s a solid pitcher, and it took us a while to get going against him,” said Winthrop head coach John Novak. “We struggled with him before, so it was good to see us finally come through a little bit.”

Collin kept his cool in a jam in the fifth inning to maintain Winthrop’s five-run lead before finishing his evening with two more strikeouts in the sixth. Hall-Dale plated two more runs against reliever Braden Branagan in the seventh, but Branagan ultimately secured the win by forcing a Noah Longfellow flyout to end the game.

Collin had been particularly dominant early in the game for Winthrop, striking out eight batters in the first three innings alone. He recorded all three outs via strikeouts in the first and third innings and fanned multiple batters in five of his six frames.

“My fastball and my curveball (were getting the job done for me),” said Collin, who averaged more than two strikeouts per inning for the Ramblers last year. “I was using a little bit of the splitter, but I was mostly going with those two, definitely.”

The win was a bounceback one for Winthrop, which suffered a 10-5 defeat Monday against Maranacook. The Ramblers now begin a more manageable portion of their schedule before facing Oak Hill, Monmouth Academy, Mt. Abram and some of the other Mountain Valley Conference juggernauts later in the year.

“Hall-Dale is always a strong team, so it means a lot,” Novak said. “You’ve got to take it one game at a time, and hopefully, this is the start of us making a little bit of a run that will get us going and keep these guys upbeat.”

Nathan took the loss for Hall-Dale, striking out five batters and allowing six earned runs in 3 1/3 innings of work for the Bulldogs before Eben Austin came on in relief. He also led the way with two hits for Hall-Dale, which had six as a team.

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