2020 Kaboom! Awards: Baseball Highlights

The abbreviated Bradley Baseball season is highlighted in Friday's Kaboom! Awards presentation

Dan Bolt Eli Rawlinson vs Evansville March 30, 2019

James Franks

General 5/15/2020 11:00:00 AM

The 2020 Kaboom! Awards, presented by RE/MAX Traders Unlimited and supported by PNC, continues today by highlighting the 2020 Bradley Baseball season, as well as a pair of 2019 team award winners.

Like all of spring sports across the nation, the 2020 Bradley Baseball season was halted in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Braves actually saw their season end a week earlier as they coped with the sudden passing of 2019 teammate Mitch Janssen. As a result, Bradley played just 10 games in 2020 and were just starting to heat up as the season came to an end.

Senior leftfielder Dan Bolt was recognized as the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week for each of Bradley's final two weeks and he landed on the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper National Players of the Week March 2 after pounding out four home runs during the 3-game series sweep at Tennessee Tech. With seven home runs in Bradley's 10 games, Bolt finished the year ranked fourth nationally with 0.7 home runs per game and sixth with a .881 slugging percentage. Shadid, a four-year starter at shortstop who was on pace to challenge Bradley's career hits record, was selected the MVC Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. He was joined on the MVC Scholar-Athlete Team by Bolt (first team), senior third baseman Brendan Dougherty (honorable mention) and senior pitcher Jed Moscot (honorable mention).

Bolt was a preseason All-Missouri Valley Conference selection, one of many preseason honors collected by the Braves. Both Bolt and senior shortstop Luke Shadid were ranked among the best at their respective positions by D1Baseball.com in the national college baseball website's preseason features. In addition, Shadid was named to the inaugural national watch list for the Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award, while junior catcher Keaton Rice was tabbed for the Buster Posey Award (national catcher of the year) watch list and junior reliever Theron Denlinger appeared on the NCBWA Stopper of the Year watch list.

In a normal year, the Kaboom! Awards take place before the baseball season has ended, so the team takes the opportunity to recognize two of its award winners from the previous season. Shadid was Bradley Baseball's 2019 A.J. Robertson Most Valuable Player, while first baseman Connor O'Brien earned the Tim Trunk Award as the team's most improved player.

The 2020 Kaboom! Awards are celebrating the year in Bradley Athletics by transitioning to a virtual presentation throughout the month of May. Each year on the final night of spring semester classes, the Bradley Department of Athletics gathers at Renaissance Coliseum for the annual Kaboom! Awards, an event modeled after the popular awards shows in the entertainment industry (Oscars, Grammys, ESPYs) and recognizes all of the graduating seniors, spotlights the team and individual achievements from throughout the year. Traditionally preceded by a red-carpet reception, the awards show is filled with video and graphic tributes, which will be presented this year through the Bradley Athletics website, BradleyBraves.com, and the department's social media accounts -- culminating with the announcement of the 67th Charles Orsborn Award May 29 and viewing of the Moments of the Year May 30.

On the day that was supposed to be highlighted by Bradley University's annual Spring Commencement ceremony, the Kaboom! Awards will honor the Bradley Athletics graduating class of 2020 Saturday.

2020 Kaboom! Awards Presentation Schedule

Day, Date	Feature	Format
Monday, May 4	Men's Golf highlights	Video
Tuesday, May 5	Charles Orsborn Award candidates	Article
Wednesday, May 6	Women's Cross Country and Track	Video
Thursday, May 7	Charles Orsborn Award finalist #1 - Nate Kennell	Video
Friday, May 8	Softball highlights	Video
Saturday, May 9	Female Individual Performance of the Year	Video
	Male Individual Performance of the Year	Video
Monday, May 11	Soccer highlights	Video
Tuesday, May 12	Orsborn Award finalist #2 - Jake Hoffert	Video
Wednesday, May 13	Tennis highlights	Video
Thursday, May 14	Megan C. Fong Inspiration Award	Video
Friday, May 15	Baseball highlights	Video
Saturday, May 16	Graduating Class of 2020	Video
Monday, May 18	Volleyball highlights	Video
Tuesday, May 19	Orsborn Award finalist #3	Video
Wednesday, May 20	Men's Cross Country and Track highlights	Video
Thursday, May 21	Female Coach Joe Stowell Award	Video
	Male Coach Joe Stowell Award	Video
Friday, May 22	Women's Golf highlights	Video
Saturday, May 23	Men's Team Performance of the Year	Video
	Women's Team Performance of the Year	Video
Sunday, May 24	Women's Basketball highlights	Video
Tuesday, May 26	Orsborn Award finalist #4	Video
Wednesday, May 27	Men's Basketball highlights	Video
Thursday, May 28	Bradley Athletics community service	Video
	Carl Grose Service Award	Video
Friday, May 29	Charles Orsborn Award	Video
Saturday, May 30	Moments of the Year	Video