Evan Morrison had his pitcher’s back.

The Dakota designated hitter launched a three-run home run in the bottom of the first inning of the No. 1 Cougars’ 5-1 win over No. 6 De La Salle, helping enable Ryan Petrovitch to throw six innings of one-run ball and get Dakota to Saturday’s regional championship round.

“I couldn’t be any more happy with that (home run),” Petrovitch said. “I mean he puts a curve ball, E-Mo (Morrison) sits on it and takes it yard. That’s the most he could do to give his pitcher confidence, and it helped a lot.”

Luke Kavalick and Braylon Ryan each reached with singles before Morrison, a lefty, crushed a down-and-in breaking ball from De La Salle’s Mason Pilarski over the right field wall down the line at Chippewa Valley, the host of Wednesday’s game.

That hit ended up being the biggest of the game by a long shot.

“It was huge,” said De La Salle head coach Dan Cimini. “Kid got a good piece of it. And, you know, that gets them started like that. And then you get a good team started like that — and if it was the other way around, it would have been the same way. So you tip your hat to the kid.”

De La Salle wasn’t able to match it despite having chances. Mason Stempin and John Bismack had singles in the second, but Petrovitch struck out the side. JJ Jurczyk and Vito Zito reached in the second, but a fly ball ended the threat.

And even when they did score — Joseph Cuppari hit a sacrifice fly to plate Stempin — they weren’t able to add on when Petrovitch punched out Grayson Thurston with a runner on second.

It was just another elite start during what has been an elite season for Petrovitch, whose fastball lives in the low 90s with movement.

His earned run average remains below 1.00 and he’s struck out 78 batters in 49.1 frames compared to nine walks.

Dakota head coach Angelo Plouffe wants everyone to know just who Petrovitch is.“He’s the MAC Red player of the year,” Plouffe emphasized. “Let’s get that right.

“He can throw a hard fastball. It’s heavy, it moves. It’s got a little movement to it, you know. You gotta time up 90, 92 mile an hour fastball. It’s not easy for high school kids. It’s not easy for a lot of people. So he was fantastic today. Very proud of him. That’s why he’s the MAC Red Player of the Year.”

Petrovitch had a little added motivation from the crowd, which featured De La Salle’s student section, “The Bro Zone”, trying to get in his head.

“I love that stuff, man,” he said with a smile. “I love when I’m getting yelled at. I love when they are trying to get in my head. I just feed off it. It helps me.”

The Cougars added two insurance runs in the bottom of the fourth with a Jacob Gjonaj double to score Jadon Ford then a sacrifice fly from Andrew Borowicz, scoring Gjonaj.

With Petrovitch at 100 pitches after six innings, James Nuechterlein was tabbed to finish the game. He worked a 1-2-3 seventh inning.

The loss ends De La Salle’s season with a 24-9 record.

“It was a phenomenal group of seniors,” said Cimini, who wraps up his first year at the helm with the Pilots. “They’re leaders. They deserve this season, and they got it. They played well, and they played meaningful baseball for an entire season.

“I told them in the huddle just now, I said, ‘if you would have told us before the season started that we would have won the Catholic League, won a district, and have been playing Dakota in the regionals, would you have taken it?’ They said, absolutely. So I have nothing to be ashamed of.”

Pilarski, who will now begin his collegiate baseball career with Western Michigan, allowed five earned runs in four innings of work. Dylan Luepke faced three batters and retired one, and Jurczyk threw 1.2 scoreless, hitless innings, striking out three.

The Cougars’ season will continue in Saturday’s regional championship round where they’ll face the No. 10 Brother Rice Warriors, who defeated the MAC Red’s Stevenson Titans, 15-3, on Wednesday.

Dakota (34-6-1) and Brother Rice (28-12) faced off at Warrior Park on Friday, May 2 with the Cougars earning an 8-4 win.

The game is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. at Grand Blanc.

It’s the same time and place they lost last year’s regional championship.

“They’re all excited to get back there,” Plouffe said. “They’ve worked hard this year for this moment. We know Brother Rice. It’s a different team when (Ole Miss commit Blake) Ilitch and (Virginia commit Cole) Duhaime are on the mound for them. So we’re excited for the opportunity.”