This Florida State baseball team sure has a flair for the dramatic.
After blowing a 4-0 lead in the opening innings of Friday's series opener vs. Wake Forest, Max Williams got his opportunity to be a hero this time, knocking a game-winning single to left field to bring home Gage Harrelson and lift the No. 4 Seminoles (25-4, 8-2 in ACC) to a 5-4 win over the Demon Deacons (21-10, 7-6 in ACC) at Dick Howser Stadium.
It's FSU's second walk-off win in the last six games.
The win doesn't happen, though without an exceptional start from Jamie Arnold, a return to form in the ace's return home.
After a pair of somewhat shaky starts at Miami and Notre Dame, this start appeared to be headed in a bad direction once again early when he walked the first batter of the inning and hit the third, putting two runners on base with one out. However, he got out of the jam unscathed and appeared to settle in from there.
Over the ensuing four innings of work, Arnold allowed just two hits, one walk and one hit-by-pitch while striking out nine batters. He retired nine of the last 11 batters her struck out nine of the final 14 batters he faced, finishing with a season-high 10 strikeouts over five scoreless innings.
While Arnold was dealing on the mound, FSU staked itself to an early lead when Alex Lodise opened the scoring with a two-run home run to right field in the third inning. It was his 12th homer of the season and his fourth in the last six games. Behind a 2 for 3 night, the FSU shortstop raised his batting average on the season to .468.
The Seminoles doubled their lead the very next inning on a two-run single from Cal Fisher. It was one of three hits on the night for FSU's nine-hole hitter. However, FSU squandered the chance to add more to its lead when Max Williams grounded out to first with two runners in scoring position.
While FSU got to Wake starting pitcher Luke Schmolke in the series opener, it struggled to have the same success against the Demon Deacons' bullpen. Three relievers combined to hold FSU scoreless and to just one hit over 4.2 combined innings entering the ninth inning.
The first two batters of the FSU ninth reached on walks before Williams' heroics on just the team's second hit of the last five innings.
At first, it looked like FSU's bullpen was again going to be costly for the Seminoles on Friday night. After Arnold left with a 4-0 lead after five innings, it was cut to 4-3 three batters into the sixth inning on a single and a pair of back-to-back homers off Chris Knier.
Wake tied the game at 4-4 in the seventh on an RBI single from Marek Houston and appeared poised to take its first lead in both the seventh and the eighth when it put two runners in scoring position in both innings.
However, veteran FSU reliever Joe Charles got out of the jam each inning. Wake Forest stranded 11 total batters in Friday's series opener.
Peyton Prescott threw a scoreless ninth inning and recorded his third win of the season.
Up Next
Game 2 of the FSU-Wake Forest series is set for 4 p.m. on Saturday.
