Topping a baseball Sunday, Alex Baeza delivered the game-winning single in Hawaii’s 8-7 comeback victory over Iowa at Les Murakami Stadium.

By overcoming a 7-1 deficit, the Rainbow Warriors split the four-game series against the Big Ten visitors to improve to 3-5. The Hawkeyes are 4-3.

“I was screaming at the ball to get by the second baseman,” said Baeza, whose please-please-please grounder into right field scored Scotty Scott from second in the dramatic 10th inning. “I was screaming at the ball: ‘Get some legs! Get through!’ And once it got through, I was waiting for Scotty to score And after that, I saw the team running at me.”

It was a remarkable resurrection for the ’Bows, who once again struggled with their pitching and fielding. Down 7-1 in the middle of the sixth, the ’Bows conducted an impromptu meeting.

“Our body language was poor, and it looked like we were rolling over and dying,” Baeza recalled. “Some of the older guys and some of the guys who were here before were talking to the younger guys, and we figured we needed to get a second leg and second life.”

That spark began with right-handed pitcher Dylan Thomas, who was summoned for the second day in a row. Thomas was projected to be the ’Bows’ season-opening starting pitcher before those plans were postponed because of a recurring blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand. Thomas surrendered a run in the sixth, but nothing after that. He retired his final 14 batters, striking out nine of them with a blistering slider.

“I had to feel out the zone at the beginning,” said Thomas, who earned the victory. “The mound’s been a little rough. I had to find my groove and, after that, I just coasted.”

The ’Bows scored a run in the sixth and four more in the seventh, punctuated by Maaki Yamazaki’s two-run single, to close to 7-6.

In the ninth, Logan Pouelsen drew a two-out walk. Pinch runner Daylen Calicdan replaced Pouelsen. Facing left-handed reliever Kyle Shimp, the left-swinging Yamazaki said he tried to crowd the plate to narrow his strike zone. “He was not feeling the mound,” Yamazaki said. “I was giving my zone little … and we just battled.”

Calicdan advanced to second and then third on Shimp wild pitches. On a 3-2 pitch to Yamazaki, Shimp threw a ball-four pitch that sailed to the backstop. Calicdan scooted home with UH’s seventh run.

“I was just doing my job, moving bases,” Calicdan said. “I did my best to score. I knew the importance of getting a base ahead to get that run and allow ourselves to play the bottom of the 10th.”

In the 10th. Scott reached on a one-out single to center. One out later, Adam Fogel drew a five-pitch walk from Hunter Lee, the Hawkeyes’ eighth pitcher. That brought up the left-swinging Baeza.

“All weekend, I was sticking with the approach of getting a fastball early in my zone and being aggressive,” Baeza said. “I was looking for a fastball over the plate. He gave it to me with the first (pitch). I got the barrel on it.”

The grounder zipped past Mitchell Boe in the hole between second and first.

“As soon as the ball touched the bat, I told myself I was scoring,” said Scott, who assumed he would be given the green light by third base coach Mike Brown. “I put my head down and ran. I was going to do my best to score.”

With a head-first slide, Scott’s left hand touched a corner of the plate under catcher Austin Martin’s attempted tag.

“Years of practicing the dive,” Scott said. “I’ve always prided myself on trying to be a good baserunner. Diving and sliding is part of it.”