Omaha, Neb. ? On a night when conditions were perfect for a typical slugfest at Rosenblatt Stadium, two pitchers went head-to-head in the lowest-scoring College World Series game in six years.

Justin Simmons barely outpitched Steven Herce in Texas’ 2-1 win over Rice on Saturday night in the last game of the opening round.

Texas pitcher Justin Simmons delivers against Rice in the first inning of Saturday's College World Series game. The Longhorns won, 2-1, in Omaha, Neb.

“As far as my side, I was just trying to hold them to as few runs as possible,” said Simmons, who shut out Rice for seven innings.

“He did the same thing. He had our hitters pretty much fooled all night,” Simmons said of Herce. “There’s not much more you can ask of your pitcher than to hold a team in the College World Series to two runs.”

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 fewest runs scored since Louisiana State beat Florida 2-1 in 1996.

“What can I say? It was a hard-played and well-pitched ballgame,” Rice coach Wayne Graham said. “It just didn’t go our way.”

Simmons (15-1) allowed one run on five hits, struck out three and walked two in 71/3 innings. Herce (13-3) was almost as sharp, allowing two runs on eight hits while striking out eight in 72/3 innings.

Huston Street picked up his 11th save with 12/3 scoreless relief innings for the Longhorns.

“I give credit to Justin for coming out and really setting the tone,” Street said. “We had the lead the whole game and that makes things a lot easier.”

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.

The Fighting Irish and Owls, ranked No. 1 in the major polls, will also play Monday in an elimination game.

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.

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.

Texas coach Augie Garrido had trouble finding the right word to describe the distance of Arnold’s ninth homer of the season.

“The one ball that ended up scoring the run was … far,” he said after a brief pause.

The Owls nearly tied it later in the eighth after two of Texas’ four errors. With runners at first and second and two outs, Paul Janish hit a slow grounder to third that Omar Quintanilla booted.

Vincent Sinisi rounded third and broke for home, but Quintanilla got to the ball quickly and threw out Sinisi at the plate.

“It was just reaction play. Apparently I made the wrong choice,” Sinisi said. “He made a good throw. It was about the only spot he could put it and he put it right there.”

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.

“Several balls were hit hard and came down a foot away from the fence,” Garrido said. “We feel very fortunate to have won.”

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.

“I haven’t had any balls come back at me like that in a long time,” Herce said. “I just missed the spot. You can’t miss the spot to a guy with power and runners at first and third.”

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.

“That was a big turning point in the game,” Simmons said. “I’ve relied all year on our defense to back me up and they did a great job.”

Stanford 4, Notre Dame 3

Stanford always seems to have plenty of pitching in the College World Series, and it was no different Saturday.

The Cardinal won their fifth straight CWS opener by edging Notre Dame 4-3.

“We usually have a pretty good No. 1 starter and that’s really what it falls to,” said coach Mark Marquess.

That’s true of the program that has produced pitchers such as Mike Mussina, Jack McDowell and the latest Jeremy Guthrie, who pitched a complete game Saturday for his 13th win of the season.

The Cleveland Indians’ first-round draft pick allowed 10 hits and struck out five.

Other than shaky seventh and eighth innings, Guthrie (13-1) was dominant after the Cardinal took a 2-0 lead in the first.

“When we’re able to swing the bats as well as we did early it helps everybody settle in,” said Guthrie, who pitched 13 innings in a regional win two weeks ago over Cal State Fullerton. “I know it helps me every time.”

Sam Fuld homered for the Cardinal (46-16), who lost in the last two CWS championship games. Stanford extended its overall winning streak to 10 games and improved to 10-4 in the opening round.

Stanford is making its fourth straight CWS appearance and 14th overall. The Cardinal last lost an opening-round game in 1995, to Cal State Fullerton, which went on to win the title.

Jason Cooper drove in two runs, and Ryan Garko was 2-for-4 for Stanford, which will play either Texas or Rice in the second round.

Guthrie walked just one in his sixth complete game this season.

“That Guthrie kid is really good. He threw three different pitches for strikes and he threw really hard,” said Notre Dame coach Paul Mainieri. “I don’t know the stats but I’m sure Guthrie hasn’t given up 10 hits in a game very often.”

Notre Dame’s Grant Johnson (9-5) kept the Irish in contention despite hitting three batters. He limited Stanford to four runs on four hits over 5 1-3 innings.

“When he was coming off the mound between innings he was so cool. I was so proud of him,” Mainieri said. “You just can’t give up many runs against Guthrie.”

Javier Sanchez hit a three-run homer for Notre Dame (49-17), in the CWS for the first time since 1957.

Guthrie wasn’t overpowering, but he was dominant through the first six innings with a 1-0 lead. He struck out four while allowing just one runner to get as far as second base before the Irish broke up the shutout bid with a three-run seventh.

Matt Bok hit a one-out double and went to third on Kris Billmaier’s single. Sanchez missed badly on the first pitch he faced, but drove Guthrie’s second over the wall in left, bringing the Notre Dame fans to their feet.