BREWER — Nobody would have blamed Kobe Rogerson if he had been caught flat-footed on the final play of Saturday night’s Class A baseball semifinal.

Teammate Matt Pushard had stymied Mt. Blue of Farmington, striking out 10, and was one strike away from closing out a no-hitter.

Instead, the freshman third baseman alertly made a leaping, backhanded stab of Anthony Franchetti’s slicing liner to preserve Pushard’s gem and secure Brewer’s 7-0 victory at Heddericg Field.

“I just reacted to it,” said Rogerson, who credited assistant coach Phil Pushard, Matt’s dad, with making a key defensive adjustment.

“On the pitch he had me slip back to the line just so they wouldn’t bunt on us and we could cover the line too,” he explained.

Coach Dana Corey’s No. 3 Witches (14-4) advance to Wednesday’s 5 p.m. regional championship game against archrival Bangor (16-2) at Morton Field in Augusta.

Pushard did not require a lot of help from his defense. The junior cleverly mixed a fastball, curveball and changeup to keep the No. 7 Cougars (8-10) guessing.

“He worked ahead, he had pretty good command of his curveball and was hitting his spots,” Corey said.

The 6-foot-5 right-hander lost his bid for a perfect game with a one-out walk in the fifth and he also walked a batter in the seventh. He threw 53 of 74 pitches for strikes (72 percent).

“I think this one probably tops it all,” Pushard said of the effort, “because all of us haven’t been in this certain situation. Everybody was pumped before the game, everybody was serious.”

Mt. Blue’s only other bid for a hit came on Evan Roberts’ head-high liner that was snared by Pushard with one out in the third.

During the game, there was some controversy inside the Brewer dugout, where no-hitter superstition was tested.

“Our center fielder (Jake Currier) is like, ‘gee, I think Matt’s got a no-no going,’” Pushard recounted. “Our right fielder, Michael (Grimble) is like, ‘shhhh!’

“I was like, ‘you guys can’t do that, you’ve got to knock on wood,’” Pushard added.

The potential jinx never took effect.

Brewer generated plenty of offense. Alex Brooks collected a double, two singles and two RBIs, Logan Rogerson singled twice and Alex Maxsimic drove in two runs with a pair of singles.

The Witches, who beat Mt. Blue 6-0 on May 18 in their regular-season meeting, scored the only runs they would need in the second inning off Mt. Blue starter Colton Lawrence. Brooks stung a one-out single down the line in left and Evan Riva followed with an infield single on which a throw wide of first allowed a run to score.

Maxsimic made it 2-0 when he flipped an RBI single to right field.

Brewer built a cushion in the third when Greg Warmuth singled with one out, stole second and moved up on Logan Rogerson’s single. Pushard plated a run with a single, then stole second.

Grimble followed with a sacrifice fly, then Brooks looped a single to left-center to make it 5-0.

The hosts, who kept the pressure on while stealing five bases, tacked on two runs in the fifth on Grimble’s triple, a double by Brooks and Maxsimic’s two-out single.