Hawaii absorbed Long Beach State’s best shot, then struck back with a four-run flurry for a 6-4 baseball victory at Les Murakami Stadium.

A crowd of 1,714 saw the Rainbow Warriors surge from a 4-2 deficit in the seventh to win Friday’s opener of a three-game series and improve to 17-13 overall and 7-6 in the Big West. The Dirtbags fell to 22-13 and 9-7.

“We didn’t flinch,” said UH coach Rich Hill, echoing a phrase from a close friend and Michigan’s head football coach. “I used to hear Jim Harbaugh say that. That’s exactly what happened. These guys roll a two spot, and we didn’t flinch at all. Came back and put together some good (at-bats).”

Down 4-2, the ’Bows scored four runs against three LBSU relievers. Ben Zeigler-Namoa hit a leadoff single and went to third on Zach Storbackken’s double. Tai Walton sizzled a grounder that third baseman Armando Briseno could not handle as the ball went into left field, enabling Zeigler-Namoa to score. One out later, Dallas Duarte walked to load the bases.

Matt Wong, who entered hitting .406 with runners in scoring position, hit a 3-2 pitch that just eluded diving left fielder Rocco Peppi to tie it at 4.

“In that two-strike (situation),” Wong said, “Coach Rich preaches ‘battle, battle, battle. Don’t go down with a K. And do anything to put the ball in play.’ Luckily, I got my bat on the ball.”

Jacob Igawa followed with a single, driving in Walton with the go-ahead run, and Duarte continued home as Peppi could not field the hit cleanly.

“The scouting report said ‘70% off speed,’” Igawa said of left-hander Josh Haley. “I thought he probably was going to come in with a breaker. I sat on it, and I put a pretty good swing on it.”

Hill praised “Ben Zeigler leading that thing off, Matt Wong touching it with two strikes, and Jacob Igawa really putting the nail in the coffin.”

Hill also made some key moves. For the first time this season, catcher Duarte was assigned the leadoff spot. Duarte drilled Graham Osman’s third pitch of the game over the fence in left field.

“Chicken skin,” Duarte said of his first home run in 371 days and fourth of his UH career. “It has been a while. It’s kind of like you hit it and you’re thinking, ‘no way.’”

Duarte said he was helped because UH’s Harrison Bodendorf and LBSU’s Osman are left-handed pitchers with nearly identical low, three-quarter deliveries.

“I got to see the same arm slot, same motion,” Duarte said.

Bodendorf, who pitched the final three innings to improve to 4-1, said: “It was kind of funny. “When (Osman) came out in the first inning, everyone was like, ‘Oh, it’s you on their team.’ I wanted to go out there and be better than he was.”

Bodendorf relinquished two bloop singles that led to a sacrifice fly and run-scoring error as the Dirtbags broke a 2-all tie to take the lead in the top of the seventh. But Bodendorf dominated after that. An LBSU single was nullified when Tyler White grounded into a double play to end the eighth.

“I knew I had it in me,” said Bodendorf, who threw strikes on 30 of 38 pitches. “I came in and closed it out.”

Hill also made a calculated gamble when he intentionally walked Peppi, bringing up catcher Connor Burns in a two-on, two-out situation in the third inning of a 1-1 game.

“Rocco Peppi is tied for first as my favorite (opposing) player in this conference,” Hill said. “I wasn’t going to let him beat me. I know Connor Burns is a future major leaguer. Peppi wasn’t going to be the guy to beat me.”

Harry Gustin struck out Burns to end the threat.