By Don Ketchum

There was a bit of suspense for the first three innings of Friday night’s (May 13) Class 4A Division II baseball semifinal game between top-seeded Phoenix Thunderbird and No. 13 Cottonwood Mingus at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.

The teams battled to a scoreless tie, but Thunderbird opened things up with four runs in the fourth inning and scored five more down the stretch to win going away 9-1.

Thunderbird will meet No. 6 seed Tucson Catalina for the state championship today at 3 p.m. at Muni.

Thunderbird had balance up and down the batting order, with seven players driving in a run. Eric Wagner and Robbie Barnes each drove in two.

Tyler Herndon gave Mingus (17-14) its only run with a home run in the seventh inning.

Left-hander Bobby Shank gave up four hits to earn the win for Thunderbird (27-3).