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 and Williams' hit was just FSU's second over the final five innings at the plate.

"Heck of a ballgame. That's a championship, super regional, College World Series game ..." FSU head coach Link Jarrett added. "The swing and the base-hit that won it, that swing against a good left-handed arm. Just an exceptional at-bat."

"I saw they had a lefty coming in," Williams said of his walk-off moment. "The 2-0 (pitch) I got jammed pretty good, he threw me a sinker. So I tried to get ready even earlier, slow everything down and just trust my hands and work the other way."

In the top of the ninth, Williams also made a great leaping grab on the warning track in straightaway center field to take away extra bases from Wake's Kade Lewis.

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.

"Jamie, the pitch count climbed but he started to find it," Jarrett said. "That's the first time we've seen swing and miss on basically every (pitch)."

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 and struck out nine of the final 14 batters he faced, finishing with a season-high 10 strikeouts over five scoreless innings.

Wake's offense was hitless in 10 at-bats with runners on base and six at-bats with runners in scoring position against Arnold Friday night.

"It felt good. I've just got to get in my groove. I started to do that after the second (inning). Just try to get hitters out and keep a one-pitch-at-a-time focus.

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 came through with the walk-off.

At first, it looked like FSU's bullpen issues were 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 when it put two runners in scoring position in both the seventh and eighth 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.

"That's a great moment for him. He bailed us out," Jarrett said of Charles. "We were in a little bit of a mess there and he got three (outs)."

Peyton Prescott threw a scoreless ninth inning and recorded his third win of the season.

While four FSU relievers allowed four runs on five hits with five walks over four innings, they combined to limit Wake to 2 for 12 (.166) with runners on base and 1 for 5 (.200) with runners in scoring position.

Game 2 of the FSU-Wake Forest series is set for 4 p.m. on Saturday.