Notre Dame wins its College World Series opener, holding down the Texas offense in a 7-3 victory

OMAHA, Neb. — John Michael Bertrand and two relievers held Texas’ potent offense in check, and Notre Dame scored in all kinds of ways in a 7-3 victory Friday night in its first College World Series game in 20 years.

The Irish (41-15) carried over their momentum from eliminating No. 1 overall seed Tennessee in the super regionals with a strong all-around performance against the program making its record 38th appearance in Omaha.

Notre Dame will play Oklahoma on Sunday. The Longhorns (47-21) will face rival Texas A&M in an elimination game.

Bertrand (10-3), roughed up in his start against Tennessee last week, limited the Longhorns to three runs on six hits in 5 ⅓ innings. Alex Rao and Jack Findlay gave up no hits in 3 ⅓ innings, with Findlay earning his fourth save.

The Irish scored six runs on nine hits against Texas starter Pete Hansen (11-3). They picked up single runs on Jared Miller’s home run in the first inning, an RBI groundout in the third and a safety squeeze in the fourth, and they scored three more in the fifth on Tristan Stevens’ balk and a couple of singles.

Carter Putz’s homer in the ninth gave the Irish a four-run lead.

The Longhorns arrived in Omaha with a program-record 128 homers, most among the CWS teams and fourth nationally, and had hit three or more home runs in each of its previous four games. They mustered only six singles against the Irish and were the only team in the first two CWS games to not hit a homer.

Douglas Hodo II had an RBI single, and the Longhorns scored on a squeeze play and wild pitch.