Before the start of the second half of the Piedmont Athletic conference schedule, Person head coach Steve Evans said that his team would take conference wins any way it could get them.

Tuesday night’s 3-1 win over the Northern Durham Knights at Rocket Park seemed to fit into that category.

It was not a work of art, as there were just four hits total for the entire game.

But Rocket freshman starter Dylan Dickens (nine strikeouts, three walks) gave up just one of them in hurling his fifth win of the season against just two losses.

Dickens seems to have established himself as the Rockets ace, with his 5-2 record and an ERA that stood at 1.75 entering the game.

“He did a tremendous job on the mound tonight mixing and locating his pitches,” said Person head coach Steve Evans. “I’m pleased with his effort and the way we played as a team defensively.”

Though the Rockets did commit one miscue in the field, they were pretty solid on defense, handling the bulk of the groundballs induced by Dickens’ sinking fastball.

“It was real comforting to me to see the defensive performance we had, and that these guys understand that they can make the plays in the field,” Evans observed.

The win also put the Rockets, now 5-5 in the conference (13-7 overall), back in the thick of things in the race for a top-five league finish that would earn them a spot in the Division 4A postseason.

Person lost to Northern by a 4-3 count back in March, but Tuesday’s loss left the Knights at 4-5 in the PAC-6 and in jeopardy of finishing out of the playoff picture.

League-leader Riverside and second-place Jordan are well ahead of the rest of the conference. But after that there is a log-jam of teams (East Chapel Hill, Northern, Chapel Hill, and Person) that are battling for the next three positions.

“There are a lot of things that can happen [over the next two weeks],” said Evans. “As I see it, if can we go 3-2 the rest of the way we’ll get in.”

Though they didn’t exactly pound on Northern starter and loser Tyler Robinson (six innings, three hits), the Rockets got a couple of big hits at the right time.

Marc Davis’s RBI double put them ahead 1-0 in the second inning, and Cody Ellis grounded a single up the middle to score the second of two runs in the fifth.

Person’s second tally was of the manufactured variety. Stephen Wright reached on an error (one of four by the Knights in the game) to open the fifth and eventually came around to score on a wild pitch.

Trey Davis, who had walked for the third time, then came across later in the inning on Ellis’s hit.

Northern did some manufacturing of its own in the third frame when a walk, a sacrifice bunt, and a groundout by Andrew Peacock accounted for the Knight’s only run of the game.

A second-inning double by Chad Walcott was Northern’s only hit of the contest.

The Rockets resume conference action when they play at first-place Riverside Friday night at 7 p.m. The Pirates defeated Person 6-3 back on March 25 at Rocket Park and were undefeated in PAC-6 play entering Tuesday’s games.

Over the weekend, the Rockets played their final round game in the Bobby Murray Invitational Tournament at Millbrook High School in Raleigh.

The Rockets continued their strong play outside the conference by defeating East Wake, 7-6.

Dickens earned the win in relief, coming in with one out in the seventh to shut down an East Wake rally. Shawn Whitt started and gave up three runs on four hits. Wright opened the top of the seventh inning but allowed three runs before Dickens came in to get the final two outs.

Trey Davis singled in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh for the Rockets.

The Rockets collected 12 hits in all as four Person players finished with two hits.

Ricky Crabtree went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI, while Whitt doubled and drove in two and Ellis went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI. Trey Davis also had two hits and two runs driven in.

The Rockets finished with an 8-2 record in non-conference play.