THUNDER BAY, ONT  The Waterloo Bucks rebounded from a heart-breaking defeat on Friday to down the Thunder Bay Border Cats 6-1 at TBaytel Park on Saturday night. Three pitchers combined to allow just a single run against a hot Thunder Bay offense while the Bucks hitters came through with a big inning that proved to be the difference.

Landon Simpson improved to 5-0 as he allowed only one run over five innings. Tim Shannon followed with three scoreless frames and Matt Behounek threw a 1-2-3 ninth to end the ballgame.

The victory, coupled with Willmar's walk off loss at La Crosse, moves the Bucks into first place in the North Division with two weeks remaining in the regular season.

The Bucks broke open a scoreless game with a five run top of the fourth inning. Kevin Kaczmarski led off with a line drive homer to right field to start the scoring. David Kerian, Connor McClain and Mikal Hill all reached on singles to load the bases with no outs.

A Blake Berger single made it 2-0 and a Luke Stratman fielder's choice scored another to make it 3-0. After a Pat MacKenzie walk reloaded the bases, a Jon McAllister single extended the lead to 4-0 and a Will Sparks' sac fly made the score 5-0.

Thunder Bay rallied in the bottom of the inning, loading the bases with two outs before an infield single by Jordan Serena plated a run cutting the lead to 5-1. The Border Cats appeared on the verge of coming even closer when  Tyler Patterson followed with a looper down ticketed for a swallow right field hit before first basemen David Kerian made a spectacular over the shoulder catch to end the inning.

Thunder Bay didn't  seriously threaten the rest of the game and the Bucks would add to the lead in the seventh thanks to a pair of Border Cat errors making the final score 6-1.

The Bucks have now won seven of their last nine games and are 2-1 on this critical six-game road trip.