After struggling through the first two games of the Ontario Baseball Association Bantam A Championships, the Soo 341 Elks Black Sox find themselves entering the semi-finals following a win to conclude the round robin.
Early Saturday afternoon at Sinclair Yards, the Black Sox dropped an 8-6 decision to Aurora before rebounding with an 8-2 win over Waterloo under the lights.
The locals finished the round robin at 1-2 and will now face Aurora (2-1) in one semi-final on Field G at 10 a.m.
The unbeaten Thunder Bay Mountain Jacks (3-0) will meet winless Waterloo (0-3) in the other semi-final, also at 10 a.m.
The semi-final winners will meet in the championship game at 1 p.m. at Sinclair Yards.
In the night cap, Waterloo grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the first inning but the Black Sox offense opened up in the fourth.
Richard MacLennan ripped a double off the fence in left field to score Michael Doan. Chris Solomon then singled home MacLennan for a 2-1 lead.
In the fifth inning, Doan brought home two more runners with a one out double.
With two outs in the sixth, Ryan McDonald plated Brett Findlay and Solomon with a single before Buonomo's hard ground ball up the middle deflected off the short stop's glove to bring home Corey Jackson and McDonald.
Buonomo took the mound in the seventh inning and struck out the side to end the game.
Against Aurora, Buonomo smacked two singles and a double for two RBIs while Jackson hit a triple and double with one RBI.
Doan started the game on the mound and gave up only two hits but was victimized by four errors, sevens walks and a hit batter in four innings of work.
In other games on Saturday, Thunder Bay blanked Waterloo 10-0 and defeated Aurora 15-9.
On Friday, the locals opened with a 21-9 loss to Thunder Bay while Aurora defeated Waterloo 8-6.
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