Tempers flared in College Park, Maryland, when the Bruins’ 5-foot-10, 180-pound Cody Delvecchio shouted and pointed at the Terrapins’ 6-foot-5, 250-pound Alex Calarco.

While the UCLA junior right-hander had just struck out the opposing catcher to escape a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the fifth, what may have been most peculiar about Delvecchio’s aggression is that Calarco already took him yard earlier in the game, and the Bruins were down 4-0.

But it seemed like Delvecchio sensed what was to come.

While UCLA baseball (12-4, 2-1 Big Ten) would drop Saturday’s bout 13-3 in a run-rule-shortened seven-inning affair, Maryland (8-7, 1-2) would ultimately lose the series, dropping Friday’s contest 12-6 in 10 innings and Sunday’s rubber match 11-5. After winning their Big Ten opening weekend, the Bruins are above .500 in conference play for the first time since April 2023.

“Crazy weekend,” said coach John Savage. “Whenever you win two games in league on the road, it’s a very good weekend. There’s no style points to anything when it comes to the road. At the end of the day, our guys did a good job of coming back after yesterday (Saturday), taking care of business today (Sunday).”

Three of the four runs charged to Delvecchio came via the long ball before redshirt sophomore southpaw Chris Grothues, who pitched just two-thirds of an inning, allowed a run to put UCLA in a 5-0 hole.

However, UCLA scored three in the seventh and brought the tying run to the plate with two outs in the ninth. Sophomore left fielder Dean West drew a five-pitch walk to bring up Roch Cholowsky, representing the go-ahead run.

The sophomore shortstop sent left-hander Andrew Johnson’s 1-1 offering over the left field wall, granting the Bruins a 6-5 lead.

But freshman right-hander Wylan Moss allowed a game-tying homer to designated hitter Chris Hacopian, who missed the Terrapins’ previous four games with a back injury, and allowed the next batter to reach on a fielding error.

However, Savage left Moss in, and the right-hander punched out two of his next three batters to send the game to extras.

After sophomore catcher Blake Balsz pinch-hit for sophomore designated hitter Cameron Kim in the seventh, he assumed the role himself. But the Bruins lifted sophomore catcher Cashel Dugger for a pinch runner in the ninth and moved Balsz behind the plate, forcing the team’s next pitcher to hit.

When Balsz drew a two-out walk in the tenth, it meant Moss would come to the plate for his first collegiate at-bat.

“Coach Savage tells me I’m in the eight hole, and I thought he was talking about the other team’s lineup – like where I’m going to have to pitch to,” Moss said. “Then someone told me I’m in the hole.”

The freshman singled off right-hander Ryan Van Buren to keep the inning alive and allowed sophomore second baseman Phoenix Call to poke the game-winning RBI single past the second.

“We were pretty fortunate,” Savage said. “We wanted to keep him in the game and how things rolled out, we let him hit. … It was a memorable at-bat. The players had a good time with it.”

Moss added that he hadn’t hit since his sophomore year of high school for Mater Dei’s junior varsity team.

After Van Buren issued back-to-back walks, sophomore first baseman Mulivai Levu lifted a grand slam over the wall to rip the game wide open.

“We had the mentality throughout the game – never given up,” said sophomore third baseman Roman Martin. “It’s been a big theme this year, so to be able to pull it off again like that is definitely an all-time game for all of us.”

Saturday starter and redshirt junior left-hander Ian May made it through the first two innings unscathed but fell apart once he faced the order a second time. Third baseman Eddie Hacopian and Calarco each hit two-run homers before first baseman Hollis Porter added a solo shot to make it 5-0 in the third.

Luke Rodriguez entered the inning in relief but had his worst outing of the season, allowing four runs on five hits and two walks over 1.2 innings. The sophomore right-hander, who entered with a team-best 0.63 ERA, left with a 2.81 mark.

CJ Bott entered in the fifth but didn’t find much success either. The freshman right-hander had the worst outing of his collegiate career, giving up four runs on three hits and two walks over 1.1 frames.

In one of few bright spots Saturday, Martin recorded his second of what would become three consecutive multi-hit games. The sophomore entered Big Ten play 10 points under the Mendoza line but finished with an average of .264 on the season.

“I fell into the hole a little bit,” Martin said. “But simplifying things is getting me back to the hitter I usually am.”

Otherwise, Bruin hitters recorded just three runs on 10 singles and a walk in a game called early because of the Big Ten’s 10-run rule.

However, UCLA came back swinging Sunday, scoring all 11 of its runs in the second inning.

Back-to-back walks started the inning before Dugger cashed in an RBI walk, Call scored two on a double and West drove in two more on a single. Then Cholowsky walked before Levu launched a three-run jack to center, knocking right-hander Joey McMannis from the game before he could record an out in the second.

UCLA scored three more with two outs as Call and West both recorded their second RBI hits.

Sunday starter and sophomore right-hander Landon Stump allowed just one run through 4.1 frames but was yanked after Calarco roped a one-out double in the fifth.

For the third consecutive weekend series, the Bruins failed to get a single quality start from their weekend rotation.

“They need to get better counts,” Savage said. “They need to have more leverage on hitters. … It was a really tight strike zone all weekend as well. … It was a hitters weekend for sure.”

Junior right-hander Michael Barnett relieved Stump and allowed Calarco – as well as three more Terrapins across 2.2 innings of work – to score, and the Bruins recorded just one more hit – a single from Martin – the rest of the way. But the team’s 11-run cushion proved to be enough.

In their high-scoring introduction to the Big Ten, the Bruins came out on top 26-24 across the three-game series – the most combined runs scored in a series for UCLA since being outscored 38-12 by Oregon State in May.

“The ballpark (Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium) is extremely offensive,” Savage said. “It was cold and windy, (but the) ballpark played hot all weekend.”