OMAHA, Neb. -- In their first two College World Series games, Tennessee pitchers gave up 33 runs.

The staff ERA improved dramatically Tuesday night, thanks to Wyatt Allen's eight solid innings in the Volunteers' 10-2 victory over Southern California in an elimination game.

"Pitching gets you places. It got us to the World Series and we were embarrassed with the way we played the last couple of games," said Allen, who allowed eight runs in less than two innings just three days earlier.

"I really had to go out there and save face."

Allen (10-3) did just that. The right-hander took a two-hit shutout into the sixth and ended up holding the Trojans to two runs and six hits.

Ryan Case hit a three-run homer and Jeff Christensen hit a two-run shot and drove in four runs for Tennessee (48-19), which will play Miami on Thursday.

The Hurricanes beat the Volunteers 21-13 Saturday in a first-round game in which Allen didn't last two innings. Before the game he decided to go from a four-seam fastball to a two-seam and was in control all night.

"I figured I couldn't any worse," he said. "I felt real good. I tried to beg for the ninth inning and I didn't get it."

Matt Samuels allowed two baserunners in the ninth but got Seth Davidson to fly out to center for the final out.

Anthony Lunetta and Michael Moon each drove in runs for USC (45-19), which was knocked out of the CWS in three games for the second straight year.

"We like Omaha this time of year and we would have liked to stay longer," USC coach Mike Gillespie said. "For it to end in such a thud and so suddenly is dramatically disappointing for all our guys."

Anthony Reyes (5-4) took the loss for the Trojans, giving up six runs and six hits in 4 1/3 innings.

The Vols, who had to rally to get past Georgia on Monday, took an early lead and held it against the Trojans.

Reyes walked Kris Bennett to lead off the second inning then gave up a single to Justin Parker. Reyes nearly got out of the jam by getting Javi Herrera to pop out and Dan Wilson to hit a line drive right at second baseman Lunetta. But he couldn't get the ball past Case, who drove one into the left-field bleachers.

"When they're swinging the bats you can't leave the ball up and in the middle of the plate and that's what I did," Reyes said.

Christensen added an RBI single in the third and the Vols went up 6-0 with two more runs in the fifth. Chris Burke started the rally with a fluke one-out single. He popped the ball way up behind home plate, but the wind blew it back into fair territory and catcher Alberto Concepcion couldn't recover before it landed between the mound and the plate.

Burke went to third on a single by Stevie Daniel and scored on a wild pitch. Christensen hit a double over right fielder Dan Wilson's head to drive in Daniel and would have had another RBI, but Wilson recovered in time to throw out Brandon Hopkins at home.

Christensen hit a two-run homer that put the Vols up 8-2 in the seventh and the Vols added two more in the eighth.

"When we started the season our goal all along was to get to Omaha. We talked about it every day," Christensen said. "We got here and we're not satisfied yet."

Allen, who gave up eight runs and eight hits in just 1 2/3 innings of the opener, ran into his only trouble in the sixth.

Brian Barre led off with a single, then after striking out Davidson, Allen walked Concepcion and hit Bill Peavey to load the bases. Lunetta singled and Moon drove in a run with a fielder's choice. Allen then struck out Josh Persell to end the inning.

"I think we just got ourselves out. We swung at some pitches that maybe weren't our pitches," Davidson said.