Youth baseball: North Ector faces uphill battle

The city of Odessa’s last chance to win the District 3 Little League Majors division took a big hit Monday.

North Ector watched Midland Mid City rally for a 4-2 victory at Floyd Gwin Park.

Mid City is just two wins from the championship, while North Ector will have to come through the loser’s bracket and win five games to claim the title.

“Obviously you want to represent your town and your league well,” North Ector head coach John Wilkins Jr. said. “We had a couple of opportunities to make outs and didn’t, but I am proud of my kids for competing.”

Mid City will face either Midland Northern or Big Spring in a winner’s bracket semifinal game at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Floyd Gwin.

North Ector will face Midland North Central in an elimination game at 8 p.m. today at Floyd Gwin.

“We just have to ask them to compete the next game and hopefully the ball will fall our way,” Wilkins Jr. said. “I am not sure the better team won (Monday), but they showed they are good by taking advantage of mistakes.”

The last Odessa team to win the District 3 championship was Jim Parker in 2003.

Mid City has never won this tournament, though it advanced to the finals in 2005.

“We just tell the boys to believe in themselves,” Mid City coach Gator Hillman said. “We beat the best pitcher we’ve seen and probably the best team we’ve seen.”

North Ector led 2-0 going into the bottom of the fifth inning, but J.M. Hillman hit a two-run triple to put Mid City ahead and then scored on a wild pitch by North Ector pitcher Jack Wilkins.

Austen Wade got the win for Mid City.

Layten Smith and Landry Fisher had RBI singles for North Ector.