Maryland baseball is heading to the gauntlet of its schedule. 

When a tough road stretches against good opposition, the fundamentals are seemingly the most important thing in baseball.

The Terps gauntlet started Friday night against the No. 1-ranked UCLA Bruins in a game the Terps never looked competitive in, falling via the mercy rule in seven innings, 12-2, at Jackie Robinson Stadium. 

Depth rules in these sorts of stretches, and the Terps have seemingly been forgetting the little things against top opposition this season. 

Throughout their next seven games, the Terps face no team outside of the top-15 in the nation.

“This is college baseball, this is what you live for. If you aren’t motivated to play these games, I should probably stop coaching, “ Swope said. This team can play really good baseball and make a run if we clean up the little things.”

One of the little things was Maryland’s inability to keep the ball in the zone. The Terps had 8 hit-by-pitches to Bruin’s batters, giving the No. 1 team in the nation free runners all night. 

The Terps were also thrown out on the basepaths, costing them a chance at a big 6th inning when David Mendez was caught trying to stretch first to third. 

Another issue was the bullpen, which once again imploded. The Terps bullpen entered Friday with a 5.82 ERA and had been shaky all season. Trailing by four in the sixth inning, Swope decided to go to his bullpen.

First up was Brayden Ryan, who drilled a Bruin to score a run, then promptly gave up a two-run single to make the score 9-2 in favor of the Bruins.

After a wild pitch that saw the Bruins score another run, a two-run single given up by Andrew Koshy saw the Big Ten mercy rule come into effect and end the game at seven innings. 

While looking at a box score, it appears the Terps were thoroughly outclassed, but UCLA scored only one run outside of its first and seventh inning explosions. 

“I thought we went toe-to-toe outside of the two big innings”, Swope said. Really proud of the guys and the way they competed. As a coaching staff, we are going to keep harping on the freebies and the little stuff.”

Terps starter Lance Williams had given up a home run in each of his last three starts, but had been pitching well outside of the long ball. 

He ran into trouble early, giving up a grand slam in the first inning and had the Terps in a 5-0 hole. 

However, Williams bounced back really nicely and was cruising through the fifth despite plunking six separate batters with a pitch.

While he was cruising, he gave up a sixth run and his pitch count rose to 90 pitches.  

“His stuff is really good and I was excited to see him compete against them,” Swope said. “I thought he did a really good job, I know he wants that one pitch back, but just gotta be better in the first.”

The Terps made a lot of loud contact offensively, but it was either met by a UCLA glove or by a baserunner being thrown out.

The sole runs came in the third and the sixth inning, with a double from Brayden Martin scoring Aden Hill and a single by Ty Kaunas scoring Paul Jones II. 

The seemingly talented but frustrating Terps were on display and have dropped their first two conference play series openers.