OMAHA, Neb. -- There is an old saying in college baseball circles -- there are a lot of strong arms in Texas.

That is especially true with the Texas Longhorns this season. Coach Augie Garrido's staff battled its way to the Big 12 Conference regular season and tournament championship, then on through regionals and the super regional with the nation's top pitching staff.

Texas throwers had a combined earned run average of 2.73. Eight on the Longhorn staff have ERAs lower than 3.00 -- an impressive number in the modern era of aluminum bats and stronger athletes.

"Yes, and this was No. 1 against No. 2,'' Garrido said of his CWS first-round showdown with Rice. The Owls, out of Houston, entered the tournament with a team ERA of 2.77.

One of the keys to it all for Texas is third-year pitching coach Frank Anderson.

Since his arrival on Garrido's staff, the Longhorns have had ERAs of 3.20 in 2000 and 3.17 last spring. Both of those years also were best in the Big 12 and ranked in the top five nationally. The best Texas staff in the three years before Anderson had an ERA of 5.52.

Garrido lured Anderson away from Texas Tech, where he helped the Red Raiders average 43 wins in the final five years of the nine he was there.

"Frank Anderson has done a marvelous job since he's been here with our pitching staff,'' Garrido said. "That is the strength of our ball club.''

"That's what we've relied on all year is pitching and defense,'' said Longhorn star Justin Simmons, who improved to 15-2 with 7 1-3 innings of five-hit ball. He gave up one run, a homer by Eric Arnold.

"We knew Rice had a good-hitting team, and to get that first win was pretty exciting,'' Simmons said.

Huston Street picked up his 11th save with shutout relief. He has a team-leading ERA of 0.89 coming into the CWS.

Simmons is out of DeSoto, Texas. Street is from Austin. They are among 11 homegrown pitchers on a staff of 13.

Anderson said his secret to getting the most out of his pitchers is simple. He tells them to go throw strikes and compete. "It's embarrassing to say, but that's about it,'' he said.

"We don't have any real feature guy,'' Anderson said. "We had Justin go out there and get his 15th win tonight, but he's not a guy like (Stanford's) Jeremy Guthrie, who can throw 95 mph, or a guy like (Nebraska's) Shane Komine, but one through 10, I think we've got a group as good as anybody around.''

Ryan Hubele has caught 54 of 54-15 Texas' games this season and is one of the few college catchers who calls all the pitches.

"I get the fun job of catching all those guys, and they are all unique,'' Hubele said. "But they also have one thing in common, and that is their competitiveness. Every time one of our staff goes out there, they seem to raise the bar higher.''

Hubele relates his job to playing a video game.

"It's kind of a cat and mouse game, where you try to outwit the opponent,'' he said. "I get to call about anything I want, because these guys all throw their pitches for strikes.''

It starts with good kids, Anderson said.

"It's been a fun ride for me,'' he said. "This time of year I just come along for the ride. I cheerlead more than anything.''

Anderson is in familiar territory coming with Texas back to Omaha. He is a native of Grant, earned junior college All-American recognition at Mid-Plains Junior College in North Platte and played at Kearney State before graduating from Emporia State in Kansas.