OMAHA, NEBRASKA - Justin Simmons pitched 7 1-3 shutout innings to lead Texas past Rice 2-1 on Saturday in the first round of the College World Series.<br>
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The Longhorns (54-15), who beat Rice (52-13) twice during the regular season, won the opener of their 29th CWS and will play Stanford on Monday. The Cardinal beat Notre Dame 4-3 in Saturday's early game.<br>
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Despite warm, humid conditions with little or no wind in a usually hitter-friendly ballpark, the game was a pitcher's duel rarely seen in the CWS. It was the lowest scoring game since Louisiana State beat Florida 2-1 in 1996. <br>
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Simmons (15-1) allowed one run on five hits, struck out three and walked two. Rice starter Steven Herce (13-3) was almost as sharp, allowing two runs on eight hits while striking out eight in 7 2-3 innings. <br>
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Huston Street picked up his 11th save with 1 2-3 scoreless relief innings. <br>
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The Fighting Irish and Owls, ranked No. 1 in the major polls, will also play Monday in an elimination game. <br>
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Jeff Ontiveros' RBI single in the third for Texas was the game's only run until the eighth, when Dustin Majewski doubled to drive in Tim Moss and put the Longhorns up 2-0. <br>
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Rice's Eric Arnold broke up the shutout bid in the eighth with a towering homer over the 30-foot batter's screen in center, where it's 408 feet to the wall. <br>
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The Owls nearly tied it later in the eighth after two Texas errors. With runners at first and second and two outs, Paul Janish hit a slow grounder to third that Omar Quintanilla booted. <br>
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Vincent Sinisi rounded third and broke for home, but Quintanilla got to the ball quickly and threw out Sinisi at the plate. <br>
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Rice also nearly had runs on two fly balls in the sixth that carried to the wall but were caught. The flies by A.J. Porfirio and Enrique Cruz likely would have been out a year ago before the outfield was expanded and the walls raised. <br>
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The Longhorns took a 1-0 lead in the third on three consecutive singles, two of which were line drives that nearly hit Herce. Ontiveros had the third hit - which Herce had to duck - to drive in Quintanilla. <br>
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Texas almost turned a triple play in the fourth. With runners at first and second and no outs, Sinisi hit a sharp liner to Ontiveros, who caught it, stepped on first and threw to Moss at second. But Porfirio dived back to the base just before the ball arrived.
