The Myrtle Beach Pelicans pulled off another miraculous comeback victory on Saturday night when Jared Bolden blasted a walk-off, two-run home run in the 13th inning.
The Pelicans rallied from a three-run deficit to force extra innings for the second consecutive night, and they won it in walk-off fashion oince again, this time for an 8-6 victory over Salem and the first four-game series sweep of the Red Sox since 2006.
The Pelicans hadn't swept a series with Salem since April of 2006 and the streak was in doubt for the second straight night. After rallying to a 4-3 victory on Friday, Bolden worked his heroics with a blast to right-center field. Bolden went 12-for-18 during the series to help Myrtle Beach to a fpour-game win streak.
The dramatic ending came after the Pelicans rallied to send the game extra innings at the last possible moment. Trailing 6-5 with two outs and nobody on base in the bottom of the ninth, Ryan Strausborger ripped his third double of the game and Jared Prince drove him in to tie the game and force free baseball.
Pelicans reliever Kennil Gomez came on for starter Barret Loux in the top of the seventh and pitched four scoreless innings. Chad Bell did the same over 1 2/3 frames before Ryan Rodebaugh took over in the 12th. The recent call-up earned his first win of the season as the Red Sox were held scoreless over the final seven frames.
After playing masterful baseball in the first three games of the homestand, the Pelicans made several miscues before bouncing back in the end. The Red Sox also had their share of blunders, committing five errors to end their streak of sweep avoidance to Myrtle Beach.
Myrtle Beach put the lead-off man on base in six of the first seven innings but managed only one earned run over that span as Salem turned three double plays during that span. The Red Sox put their lead-off man on base in five of the first seven innings and the Pelicans committed three errors to help Salem take control early.
Bolden's two-out blast gave the Pelicans their first lead since the first inning, when Jared Prince's sacrifice fly scored Leury Garcia, but Salem answered back with a pair of runs in the second. Myrtle Beach tied it up in the bottom of the frame on an errant throw to the dugout that made it 2-2, with all four runs unearned.
The Red Sox got to Pelicans starter Barret Loux in the fifth on RBI singles by Derrik Gibson, Kolbrin Vitek and Bryce Brentz. The Pelicans cut the deficit to 5-3 on
Ryan Strausborger's RBI single, but a throwing error in the sixth put Salem back on top by three runs, 6-3.
That set the stage for more late-game heroics by the Pelicans, who erased a 3-0 deficit to win 4-3 in 10 innings on Friday night. Prince extended his hitting streak to 16 games with an RBI single in the seventh and Santiago Chirino's sac fly cut the deficit to 6-5.
Strausborger, who had sat out the past two games with a mild injury, delivered a double and beat the throw to home on Prince's hit to set up the series-clinching sweep.
The Pelicans get a rare non-travel day off today before opening another four-game homestand Monday against the Wilmington Blue Rocks.
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