The first two innings of Saturday’s meeting between Maryland and UCLA were methodically scoreless. Bruins starter Ian May repeatedly tried to pick off Maryland’s baserunners through those first two frames, and it looked like he finally had his first successful attempt in the third.

With Eddie Hacopian at the plate, May fired to second, where Elijah Lambros was initially called out. Immediately, though, Eddie Hacopian turned to the third base dugout and suggested the Terps challenge. Head coach Matt Swope did just that, and the call was overturned. 

Replay review didn’t exist at “The Bob” before this week, but on Saturday, it completely altered the fabric of the game. Lambros would’ve been the second out of the inning. Instead, he became the first of the Terps’ seven runs in the third inning, when Eddie Hacopian sent a long fly ball over the centerfield wall just a few pitches later.

Coming off of a disappointing loss in game one of the series, Maryland made a statement against UCLA (11-4) in game two. The third-inning offensive explosion and a dazzling Logan Hastings start powered the Terps to a 13-3 win over the Bruins in seven innings.

“This is what character is all about after a tough loss like that,” Swope said. “You kinda see how the guys answer, and they did a great job responding.”

Lambros earned a hard-earned walk to start Maryland’s (8-6) third inning. Sophomore Brayden Martin then advanced Lambros to second with a sacrifice bunt. 

Eddie Hacopian’s ensuing blast put the Dirty Terps ahead 2-0, but the scoring was far from over.

After a Chris Hacopian walk, Alex Calarco — who entered the day tied for the nation’s lead in home runs with nine — launched a two-run blast to left-center field. The long ball pushed Maryland’s lead to four and put Calarco alone at the top of division one’s home run rankings.  

First baseman Hollis Porter stepped up next, and smoked a fly ball over the right field wall, making it back-to-back jacks for the Dirty Terps. 

Additional RBI base hits by Liam Willson and Lambros capped off Maryland’s seven-run third inning — a frame that virtually iced the game.

With the comfortable run support, Hastings continued shoving on the mound in his first career start at “The Bob.” The right-hander recorded back-to-back 1-2-3 innings in the third and fourth. 

After a Jacob Orr two-RBI single in the bottom of the fourth, the Bruins broke through for their first run in the following frame. Sophomore Dean West delivered a run-scoring single, decreasing Maryland’s lead to 9-1.

The Terps’ offense continued adding on in the fifth inning. 

In his second game back from injury, Chris Hacopian put an additional two runs on the board with a no-doubt home run to left-center field that pushed the Terps’ lead to 11-1. 

“Just play my game, do my thing offensively, and stick to my process and routines,” Chris Hacopian said. “The rest will take care of itself.”

In the final inning of Hastings’ start, he gave up an additional two runs to the Bruins, slightly weakening his final line. The freshman surrendered three runs on nine hits but also struck out three batters through six terrific innings of work.

“The routine changes a little, but you know the mentality doesn’t change,” Hastings said when discussing his recent shift from reliever to starter. “Mentality is: go in and get zeros and get your boys back at bat.”

Maryland immediately countered in the bottom of the sixth as Willson and Martin both delivered RBIs to help the Terps regain their 10-run lead — an advantage that set them up for their first run-rule victory of the year.

With this season’s conference expansion, the Big Ten installed a new mercy rule; any game will be called if one team is leading by 10 or more runs after seven innings.

Trying to end the game in the seventh, Swope turned to left-hander Omar Melendez to close out the win. After putting the first two Bruins on base, Melendez set down the next three — two of those final three outs coming on swinging strikeouts.

The Dirty Terps will look to win their first Big Ten series of the season in tomorrow’s rubber match against the Bruins. Ben Strober and Daniel Stein will have the call of that noon start for MBN.