Jake Adams hit a game-tying home run in the eighth inning before Jonathan Arauz walked it off with a sacrifice fly in the 11th as Class A Advanced Buies Creek topped Potomac, 2-1, to win its first ever Mills Cup title.
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With Hurricane Florence set to impact much of the East Coast in the coming days, Minor League Baseball announced earlier in the day that the Carolina League finals would be changed from a best-of-5 series to a single, winner-take-all game on Tuesday night.
• Box Score
Buies Creek won the game despite a collective 0-for-8 showing with runners in scoring position from an offense that also left the bases loaded twice in a three-inning span and stranded 11 men on base overall.
Adams tallied three of the Astros' seven hits in the victory, and none were bigger than his two-out shot down the left-field line in the eighth. Seth Beer, Houston's No. 7 prospect and first-round pick from the 2018 Draft, nearly walked it off two innings later, hitting a deep fly ball to center field that was caught up against the wall.
Beer's near miss did, however, help to set the stage for Arauz's heroics in the 11th.
Chuckie Robinson and Adams opened the inning with back-to-back singles and then advanced to third and second base, respectively, on a sacrifice bunt ahead of Arauz. The Astros No. 23 prospect wasted little time, lofting the first pitch he saw into center field for the walk-off sacrifice fly.
Buies Creek starter Bryan Abreu kept the P-Nats' offense in check over the first four innings, allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out five. Jose Hernandez gave up one run over the next three frames as he bridged the gap to Enoli Paredes and Colin McKee, who combined for six strikeouts and allowed just two hits while completing two innings apiece.
Outfielder Nick Banks hit an RBI double in the fifth inning to account for Potomac's lone run in the loss.
Right-hander Joan Baez was solid on the mound in his second postseason start for Potomac, tossing 4 2/3 scoreless frames in which he mixed three hits and three walks with six strikeouts. He retired eight of the first nine batters before finally allowing a two-out single in the third inning.