photo: Steve Dixon Roberson pitcher Josh Thrailkill shut down Tuscolas batters for six innings Tuesday afternoon in Waynesville.

WAYNESVILLE - A word of warning to Mountain Athletic 3-A Conference baseball teams in regard to Roberson pitcher Josh Thrailkill: He is bigger and better this season than he was last season.

Two inches taller and 25 pounds heavier than he was in his freshman season, the 6-foot-3, 175-pound, right-handed Thrailkill basically has been untouchable in the first four games of his sophomore season.

Take Tuesday, for example, when Thrailkill pitched a six- inning no-hitter in Roberson's 10-0 win over Tuscola.

"We couldn't touch him," Tuscola coach Billy Shepherd said of Thrailkill, who mixed his fastball and curveball with his change-up to constantly keep hitters guessing. "We only made solid contact on one ball."

With his fastball reaching 85 mph and his off-speed pitches hitting 75 mph, Thrailkill (4-0) finished his 81- pitch performance with nine strikeouts and no walks.

Three errors by his teammates kept him from pitching a perfect game.

"I had all three of my pitches working," said Thrailkill, who has allowed only two runs - both unearned - and six hits in 18 innings with 32 strikeouts and one walk. "I was able to keep them off balance."

Thrailkill also collected two hits in three at-bats, including a two-run home run that broke a scoreless tie in the third inning.

"I couldn't ask him to do more," Roberson coach Tom Smith said.

Top-ranked Roberson (8-0, 6-0) defeated seventh-ranked Tuscola (6-2, 4-1) for the first time in three seasons, ending a four-game skid to its conference rival.

"I don't know if we are that good," Smith said of the Rams' ranking, "but we will take a win against a team that has handled us the past couple of seasons."

Roberson scored four runs in the fourth inning and four more in the sixth inning to invoke the 10-run mercy rule.

The Rams' outfielders led their offensive outburst.

Junior center fielder Cameron Maybin was 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI, both of them off of his 400-foot home run. Junior left fielder Wesley Williams was 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBI. Junior right fielder Clay Roland was 2-for- 3 with one run.

Senior third baseman Theo Herila, senior first baseman Tyler Radford and senior catcher Blair Wells added one RBI apiece. Freshman shortstop Justin Jackson scored two runs, and senior second baseman Justin Talbot scored one.

"We have gotten production from a lot of people in every game we have played," Maybin said.

Contact Messer at 232-5837 or [email protected].