(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Carolina League Final reduced to one game due to Hurricane Florence
Nederlands
 BUIES CREEK, Harnett County, North Carolina (USA) -
Buies Creek Astros (Houston Astros) won 2-1 in eleven innings against Potomac Nationals (Washington Nationals) on Tuesday-evening (September 11) to win its first Championship-title in the Carolina League (Single-A Advanced).
The best-of-five Mills Cup Championship Final was reduced to only one game due to the approaching Hurricane Florence.
Earlier on Tuesday, Geoff Lassiter, the President of the Carolina League, announced that due to the state of emergency in both North Carolina and Virginia because of the approaching Hurricane Florence, it was decided that the Mills Cup Championship Series was shortened to an one-game, winner-takes-all contest.
In the statement, Lassiter said: ,,The safety and well-being of our players, coaches, fans and the employees of the teams is our primary concern and moving this series to a one-game playoff is the right thing to do.
We appreciate the cooperation of the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros organizations on this matter and we wish the best for those in the path of Hurricane Florence''.
In the original schedule, the first and second game were to be played on Tuesday and Wednesday in Buies Creek.
Thereafter, the Series would move to Woodbridge, Virginia, the home of Potomac Nationals.
However, as it was expected that the Hurricane would arrive on land on Thursday, it was decided to play only one game.
With that, everyone involved had an extra travel day on Wednesday to leave the area and others to prepare for the approaching storm.
In the Championship-game, Potomac opened the score in the top of the fifth inning on an one-out double by Nick Banks.
The home-playing Astros came alongside in the eighth, thanks to a homerun by Jake Adams with two outs.
Potomac then left the bases loaded in the top of the ninth and as Buies Creek was retired in order in its ninth at bat, the game went into extra innings.
The decision fell in the eleventh inning.
First, Potomac left two runners behind in the top of this inning.
In the home half, off of a new pitcher, Chuckie Robinson and Jake Adams led off with singles.
The two moved on a sacrifice bunt, then Robinson scored on a sacrifice fly by Jonathan Arauz.
For Buies Creek Astros, this was its last game in Jim Perry Stadium, as well as in Buies Creek.
In 2016, the Houston Astros-organization planned to locate a team in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
The City Council approved to build a new stadium there, which will be ready for the 2019 season.
In the meantime, the team played its games in 2017 and 2018 in Buies Creek.
There, the team shared Jim Perry Stadium with the Fighting Camels, the baseball-team of Campbell University.
Next year, the team will move to nearby Fayetteville, with whom the Astros signed a 30-year lease agreement in December 2016.
(September 14)
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