Like Old Times East second baseman Brad Cooper waits on a throw to tag out Roberson's Brian Medlock.�Photo by DREA JACKSON By Ron Wagner Times-News Staff Writer April 14, 2001 ASHEVILLE -�Once again, East Henderson is going above and beyond the normal call of duty to keep T.C. Roberson in the Mountain Athletic Conference baseball race. The Eagles' two-year pattern of upsetting one of the MAC's top dogs -�West Henderson -�before losing to the other -�Roberson -�stayed alive Friday when East was thumped 11-1 in six innings by Roberson. It's the second straight year that East has defeated West before losing to T.C., and last season it ended up propelling the Rams past the Falcons for the league title. T.C. coach Tommy Smith is happy to see history repeating itself. "It's similar to what happened last year. (West) beat us early, and we got in a situation where all we needed to do was win out," he said. "So we'll take 'em one game at a time and try to do that." West handed Roberson its only league loss last year, but a setback to East doomed the Falcons' championship hopes. Again in 2001 the Falcons have put the only blemish on the Rams' MAC slate thanks to a win on April 3, but a loss to the Eagles Tuesday has, again, punctured the cushion. East coach Wendel Ireland doesn't know why his team can beat West but not Roberson, but after a week that included games with seventh-, fifth- and third-ranked 3-A teams in the state, he's just happy to be alive. "I think we probably had a little bit of a mental letdown," he said. "We played (No. 7) Franklin Monday, we played (No. 5) West Tuesday and we turned around and played (No. 3) T.C. Friday. That's a tough week. I don't know of three better teams in the state that you're going to play in one week." The story Friday at Roberson was the work of Ram righty Kory Radford, who used control and stellar defense to flirt with a perfect game. Though he struck out just two batters, Roberson's infield gobbled up everything that got near it, recording nine consecutive ground ball putouts as Radford was perfect until a two-out walk to Colton Hargus in the fifth. "Throw strikes and play defense," Smith said of Roberson's annual philosophy. "And Kory works fast. It keeps your defensive players on their toes." A questionable throwing error on a Seth Nichols grounder to start the sixth led to East's only run. Pinch-hitter Brett Mathis finally got to Radford with a bouncing single between first and second that left runners at first and second before Nichols denied Radford the shutout by scoring on Aaron Johnson's groundout. "We didn't hit the ball that bad. It seems like we just hit it at them," Ireland said. "I'm proud of the kids. We've just got to win out (to make the playoffs), it's as simple as that." Roberson wasn't nearly as befuddled with East pitching, as the Rams got two runs in the first and six in the fourth before ending things early with three more in the sixth. Chris Price and Jason Fletcher had RBI singles in the opening frame off of Eagle starter Josh Overstreet, and they were in on the action again when Roberson broke the game open in the fourth. Lee Skaggs led off with a double, and after a walk to Justin Perdue a throwing error on a Brian Medlock bunt loaded the bases. That set up Kenny Smith's run-scoring single followed by Price's towering three-run homer, his fifth, to right and Fletcher's line-drive home run to right center. Three straight pinch hitters provided the knock-out blow for the Rams in the sixth off of Eagle reliever Andrew Elder, culminated with Bobby Hubbard's two-run double and Smith's run-scoring single. "That's a heck of a baseball team over there," Ireland said. "Second base, shortstop and third base, they're the best in the conference...They can play." Overstreet falls to 1-1 for East (6-8, 2-4 in the MAC). He gave up eight runs (all earned) on nine hits over four innings with two strikeouts and four walks. Fletcher was 3-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBIs for Roberson (13-1, 5-1), while Price was 2-for-4 with four RBIs. Smith was 3-for-5.