Through four innings, the Person Rockets appeared to be in pretty good shape, up by two runs against the East Chapel Hill Wildcats with ace Brittany Shotwell on the mound and looking like her old self.

But all that changed when the Wildcats scored four unearned runs in the top of the fifth and made it stand up for a 5-3 victory over the Rockets in Piedmont Athletic Conference softball action Tuesday at the Person High School Field.

The loss dropped Person to 2-3 overall and 1-1 in conference play, while ECH improved to 3-3 (2-0 conference).

Single tallies in the second and third inning gave the Rockets a 2-0 lead, but the home team turned a little too generous on defense with two costly errors in the fateful fifth.

A walk, an error, and a groundout led to the Wildcats’ first run. Then a softly hit blooper off the bat of Kelly Dominguez dropped in to bring home the second run and even the contest at two apiece.

Claire Williamson proceeded to drill perhaps the only hard base-hit of the game off Shotwell to right field. That ball got past the outfielder and two runs ended up scoring on the play to put ECH ahead to stay, 4-2.

“They really didn’t hit the ball much off Brittany today,” said Person head coach Mike Shotwell after the game. “That bloop hit gave them their [second] run — we just gave them too much.”

Having been diagnosed with a broken finger on her pitching hand last week, and making her first start since the season opener back on Feb. 28, Shotwell certainly pitched well enough to win on Tuesday. She fanned 14, walked three, and allowed just three hits (two that made it past the infield).

The Wildcats took advantage of two Person errors in the seventh to tack on another run without the benefit of a hit to go ahead 5-2.

Jennifer Bowen and Erica Reaves reached on back-to-back singles with one out in the Person seventh. After a force out, Shotwell’s infield hit scored Bowen to make it 5-3.

But ECH reliever Katri Thiele fanned the next batter to end the game and the threat.

Coach Shotwell thought his team made good contact against Wildcat pitching, but he credited the Wildcats’ strong play on defense.

“To their credit they made the plays in the field,” he said. “We took advantage of what we could. There were a lot of groundballs, we just didn’t hit the ball in the hole.”

Early on, Person’s Melissa Harris pulled a double to left field with one out in the second inning. The ball one-hopped the fence, as Harris eventually came in on Carrie Albert’s sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead.

The Rockets added another tally in the third when Reaves singled, stole second, and scored on Rhew’s two-bagger.

Wildcats starter and winner Melissa Guerry (six innings, two strikeouts, five hits) settled down after that and kept Person scoreless through her next three innings of work. At one point, she induced seven of eight batters to hit into groundouts.

Thiele came on in the final inning to earn the save, She had two strikeouts.

Before the season, Shotwell identified ECH as a potential threat in the conference, and judging from Tuesday’s outcome, that appears to be the case.

“I thought they were going to be good,” he said. “They haven’t played that well so far [this year] but maybe they turned their season around right here.”

Albert was the home team’s leader on offense on Tuesday, going 2-for-2 with an RBI. Chelsea Wrenn also doubled for the Rockets.

Bowen played first base and appeared to be recovered from bein hit in the face by a line drive last week.

Person resumes play with a PAC-6 match-up at Northern Durham on Thursday afternoon (4 p.m. start).