CarL1 Myrtle Beach Pelicans

Bolden Named Carolina League Player of the Week

Published on July 18, 2011 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Myrtle Beach Pelicans News Release


MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Myrtle Beach Pelicans outfielder Jared Bolden has been named the Carolina League's Player of the Week for the period of July 11 to 17, the league announced on Monday. Bolden's award comes on the heels of his explosive series against the Salem Red Sox that ended on his 13th-inning walk-off home run swing to complete a four-game sweep Saturday at BB&T Coastal Field. In all five Pelicans games over the award period, Bolden batted .583 (15-for-24) with two doubles, three homers, six runs scored, eight runs batted in, and a 1.042 OPS.

Against Salem, Bolden simply went off as the Pelicans rolled to a four-game sweep of their Southern Division foes. The Lynchburg, Virginia native routed the Red Sox nearly single-handedly, ripping 12 hits in 20 at bats (.600) in the series with two doubles, two home runs, five runs scored, and six runs batted in. Bolden set the tone for his and his team's series early, crushing a two-run homer in the bottom of the first inning during Wednesday's opener with Salem to set his club on the road to an 8-3 wrecking of the visitors. One night later, the Virginia Commonwealth product walked once and added two hits and two runs scored as the Pelicans held off the Red Sox 6-5. On Friday, as the Pelicans rallied from a three-run deficit in the seventh inning en route to their first of consecutive walk-off wins, Bolden drove home the game-tying run with a clutch two-out single to plate Leury Garcia. Myrtle Beach won that affair 4-3 in the bottom of the tenth to set up Saturday's heroics.

Entering his final Saturday at bat already with three hits on the evening to go along with a run scored, Bolden hammered the first walk-off home run of his baseball life, a two-run shot off Red Sox reliever Anatanaer Batista in the bottom of the finale's thirteenth inning, to lift his club to a decisive 8-6 sweep-completing win. The Pelicans' four-game whitewashing of the Red Sox marked the first time Myrtle Beach had swept a Salem club since brooming the Houston Astros-affiliated Salem Avalanche in 2006. The Pelicans have now beaten the Red Sox eight of their last nine and nine of their last eleven matchups.

Just 12 games ago, Bolden was a .247 hitter batting in the bottom of the order. Since then, spurred by a move to the two-hole, he has lifted his average 44 points by going 22-for-46 (.478) over 12 contests including multi-hit affairs in each of his five games over the award period to move into fifth place on the Carolina League leaderboard with a .291 average. Bolden found a home in the second spot in the Pelicans' batting lineup for all four games in the Salem series. In 14 games there this season, the 24-year-old is batting .367 (22-for-60). During the first game of the award period, the Pelicans' series finale with the Wilmington Blue Rocks on Monday, July 11, Bolden batted ninth and went 2-for-4 with a two-run homer. The outfielder had two home runs all season entering the finale in Wilmington. He now has three in his last five games.

Bolden's award is the seventh weekly accolade garnered by Pelicans players this season.

The reigning Carolina League Player of the Week and his Pelicans teammates welcome in the Blue Rocks for a four-game series beginning Monday evening at 7:05 p.m. at BB&T Coastal Field. Myrtle Beach will send left-hander Robbie Ross (8-3, 2.40) to the mound against fellow southpaw Justin Marks (5-6, 3.72) in a rematch of a 3-0 Wilmington win on Sunday, July 10 in Delaware. Tickets for all Pelicans home games can be purchased by visiting the BB&T Coastal Field box office, the Tickets page at MyrtleBeachPelicans.com, or by calling (843)918-6000 or (877)918-TIXX.

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Carolina League Stories from July 18, 2011


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