Courtesy of Yale Sports Publicity

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- (Press Conference) Someone's win streak had to end in Saturday's NCAA Baseball Regional winner's bracket showdown between the Oregon State Beavers and Yale. The nation's No. 1-ranked team increased its streak to 18 games and improved its record to 51-4 before a crowd of 3,474 with an 11-0 victory over a Bulldog squad that had its string of success end at nine contests.

The Elis (33-17), who beat Nebraska on Friday, must win Sunday at 4 p.m. ET against Holy Cross to keep their season alive in this double-elimination tournament at Goss Stadium. The winner of that earns a rematch with host Oregon State Sunday night at 10 p.m. ET. 

The Beavers, who are 28-1 at home this year, were eager to get on the board Saturday night in front of a packed house, and they used two home runs, timely hits and some fortuitous bounces to plate five runs over the first four innings. The wheels came off the Bulldog bus in the top of the sixth and the rout was on.

Yale's best chance to cut into that margin came in the fourth. Tim DeGraw led off with a walk and then Alex Stiegler went opposite field down the right field line for a ground-rule double. After a ground out and a strikeout, Griffin Dey hit a two-strike fastball to deep center that was tracked down a step from the wall. The sophomore first baseman got robbed again in the seventh with an even better play in right center.

The Elis weren't just facing a hot team, they were up against one of the best hurlers in the nation, lefty Luke Heimlich, a first-team All-American who brought a 0.81 earned run average and a 10-1 record into the game. He gave up two hits over seven innings.

"He's the best pitcher I've seen in college baseball," said Yale head coach John Stuper of Heimlich. "We hit him [hard] a couple of times, and we good some good swings."

Junior righty Eric Brodkowitz got the start for Yale and went 5.1 innings before classmate Tyler Duncan, sophomore Sam Boies and junior Drew Scott finished the work on the mound.

SUNDAY
Yale and Holy Cross play Sunday at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN3 in their seventh meeting of the season. The Elis won five-of-six during the regular season. The Crusaders eliminated Nebraska Saturday with a 7-4 decision. The winner of the afternoon game plays the Beavers at 10 p.m. ET with the hope of requiring a Monday finale.

BULLDOG BITES
Sophomore starting second baseman Simon Whiteman, who fouled a ball off his leg on Friday, was unable to make the lineup Saturday. Freshman utility man and pitcher Alex Stiegler made his seventh start at second base in his place… The Bulldogs, the lower seed, were the home team Saturday but had the same (first base) dugout as Friday… The last time a Yale baseball team played a No. 1-ranked team was 2014, in a three-game series at Louisiana State. LSU grabbed the first two, but the Bulldogs won the finale… The Elis wore their white jersey and pants combo with blue letters and blue hats.

REGIONAL HITS
Saturday's first pitch was scheduled for 7:04 p.m. PT but was moved to 8:04 p.m. PT… The game also got switched from an ESPN3 game to ESPNU… There were four (Ivy, Patriot, Pac-12, Big 10) league champions in the Corvallis regional.