Trailing No. 1-seeded Dakota by seven runs heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, Milledgeville made one final push.

The Missiles brought the tying run to the plate, but a groundout ended the game as the Indians won the Class 1A Eastland Sectional semifinal matchup 8-6.

Five errors and four unearned runs allowed were just a bit too much for the Missiles (19-6) to overcome. The Indians (26-4) advance to face Fulton in Friday’s sectional final at 5:30 p.m.

Milledgeville led 1-0 before Dakota took control with six runs in the fourth inning. Two additional insurance runs in the fifth turned out to be the difference in the game.

“I am always the one to say, ‘Don’t sit on however many runs,’” said AJ Howarth, Dakota’s returning Illinois Coaches Association all-state pitcher. “We have to keep putting the pressure on their defense every single time.”

She finished with 10 strikeouts, two walks and six runs (one earned) allowed.

Milledgeville’s Kendra Kingsby struck out seven, walked six and was saddled with five unearned runs. She was a home run short of the cycle. Brinley Hackbarth led the Missiles with three RBIs, and Kinnley Ross had two.

Milledgeville coach Morgan Adolph thought her team was just a bit slow to the ball during Dakota’s big inning.

“We kind of let a couple things eat us up,” she said. “Defensively, yeah, it was not our best.

“If we could have tightened things up defensively, I think we would have had them. We knew they were going to be a tough team. Not our best today.”

Olivia Wooden reached on a one-out error to get the Missiles rally going in the seventh.

Lexis Grenoble singled, Kennedy Livengood drove in a run, Kingsby walked, and Ross hit a two-run single. Hackbarth followed with a two-run double before the final groundout.

“This group of seniors I have is going to be pretty hard to replace,” Adolph said. “This is my fifth year, so I had them for four years straight. They came into a program that was kind of struggling, but they bought in and they worked to kind of rebuild the culture that we’re hoping continues.

“They are a group that we’re going to miss a lot.”

The Missiles won their first regional title since 2018 and were NUIC South champions.

“Getting the younger girls in line, just kind of helping them out, teaching them what to do makes the coach’s job easy when you’ve got a group like that.”

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Milledgeville’s Brinley Hackbarth comes off the field as the game ends against Dakota Tuesday, May 26, 2026, at the Eastland Class 1A softball sectional quarterfinal. (Alex T. Paschal)