The Tulare Western Mustangs will head out on the road to challenge the Lemoore Tigers at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. Neither Tulare Western nor Lemoore posted many runs in their last games, so it might be the pitching crews that decide this one.
Tulare Western fought the good fight in their extra-innings contest against Hanford on Wednesday but wound up with a less-than-desirable result. They fell just short of the Bullpups by a score of 2-1. The Mustangs' defeat signaled the end of their five-game winning streak.

MJ Chavez
| 05/06/26 @ Hanford | 5 |
| 04/24/26 vs Tulare Union | 6 |
| 04/17/26 @ Lemoore | 10 |
| 04/10/26 @ Hanford | 5 |
MJ Chavez was a force to be reckoned with on the mound despite the final result: he didn't allow a single earned run over six innings pitched. He has been consistent recently: he hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in four consecutive appearances.
On the hitting side, Tulare Western saw four different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Grant Crawford, who went 2-for-3 with one RBI.
Meanwhile, while Lemoore put up some runs on Wednesday, the same can't be said for Dinuba. The Tigers sure made it a nail-biter, but they managed to escape with a 1-0 victory over the Emperors. Give some credit to the fans of both teams: the last three times they've met, the home team has come away the winner.
The result came thanks to Austin Anacleto's shutout, as he gave up just three hits and racked up nine Ks. Those nine strikeouts set a new season-high mark for him.
Lemoore is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four matchups. That's provided a nice bump to their 17-8 record this season. Those wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 4.0 runs on average over those games. As for Tulare Western, their loss dropped their record down to 17-7-1.
Tulare Western couldn't quite finish off Lemoore when the teams last played back in April and fell 4-2. Can the Mustangs avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps