Omaha, Neb. ? Vince Bongiovanni didn’t have time to get nervous about his first College World Series start.

It wasn’t until about 12 hours before Monday’s elimination game against Southwest Missouri State that the Miami sophomore got the call from coach Jim Morris.

Bongiovanni allowed just two runs, one earned, in six innings and then received relief help from George Huguet and Shawn Valdes-Fauli as the Hurricanes stayed alive with a 7-5 victory.

Miami (45-16-1) will play Texas today in an elimination game. The winner of that matchup will face Rice Wednesday. Rice beat Texas, 12-2, Monday night.

SMS (40-26) went two-games-and-out in its first trip to the College World Series.

Joey Hooft and Jim Burt homered to lead the Hurricanes’ 12-hit attack against three SMS pitchers, but it was Bongiovanni who received most of the credit from Morris.

“Vince pitched the best game of his career in what was a pressure situation,” Morris said.

Morris’ original plan was to pitch sophomore lefty Brandon Camardese (9-1) in Miami’s second game.

But after watching Rice right-hander Jeff Niemann hold SMS to one hit through eight innings of the Owls’ 4-2 first-round win, Morris decided to go with the right-handed Bongiovanni against a Bears lineup that has seven righties.

“A fastball guy was really good against them on Saturday,” Morris said, “so I could save Camardese and pitch him the next game.”

SMS had its leadoff man on base in the first five innings but managed only two runs off Bongiovanni.

Rice 12, Texas 2

Omaha, Neb. — Wade Townsend struck out 10 and gave up two hits in the last six innings Monday night, and Rice used a seven-run sixth inning to pull away to victory.

The Owls (55-11) will play either Texas (49-19) or Miami (45-16-1) Wednesday. The loser of today’s game will be eliminated.

The loss was Texas’ second-worst in 119 CWS games.

The Longhorns’ most lopsided defeat was an 11-run loss to Arizona in 1963.

It was the first loss in six College World Series games for the defending national champions, who won four straight last year and beat Miami 13-2 in their Series opener Saturday.

Townsend (11-1) gave up two runs in the opening inning, then settled down and dominated the Longhorns. He came within one out of pitching his first complete game.

The 6-foot-4, 225-pound sophomore retired eight straight batters in one stretch. After Taylor Teagarden’s sixth-inning double, Townsend set down nine more in a row before pinch-hitter Michael Hollimon’s ground-rule double with two out in the ninth.

Townsend, who allowed seven hits, left with two out in the ninth after walking Tim Moss. David Aardsma came on and needed only one pitch to get the final out.

Texas’ seven pitchers walked nine and hit four batters. The number of pitchers used and hit batsmen equaled CWS records.

Rice took a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning on Justin Ruchti’s two-run double.

The Owls put up their seven runs with two out in the sixth.