Despite poor hitting, the Northview Chiefs’ baseball team will advance to the next playoff round with a win and a loss this week.

NHS beat Freeport 4-2 Tuesday in a pitchers’ duel won by the Chiefs’ Kevin Vaughan in a complete game, but lost 3-0 to Holmes County in the district championship Thursday.

Daulton Tullis got the loss Thursday after six innings of work.

“He pitched well enough to win the game, but we couldn’t get hits,” first-year coach Martin Freeman said.

Freeman said the hitting needs to improve with more than a week to prepare for a trip to Paxton on Tuesday, May 7.

“We’re going to do a lot of bunting and slashing,” Freeman said. “We’re going to get the ball in play.”

A win against Paxton could set the Chiefs up for a rematch against Holmes County in the following round, assuming they can get passed Central.