WINONA LAKE, Ind. - Grace played a pair of closely contested softball games on Tuesday with Huntington.

The Lancers fell 8-7 and 9-5 at Coach Phil Dick Field with each game being decided in the closing innings.

Grace scored first in both outings. In the opener, Daylie Rickard reached base in the first inning with a two-out single. She scored on the next at-bat thanks to an RBI single from Tia O'Connor.

The Foresters responded with a flurry of offense. Huntington scored five unearned runs in the second inning, then tacked on three more runs. After four innings, Grace faced an 8-1 deficit.

But the Lancers showed resilience, producing a big fifth inning to battle back.

Bree Gardinier opened up the scoring with an RBI double to plate Bela Duran. Grace's next five batters all reached base safely; two-out singles from Sami Lemler, Sydney Argo, Paige McCorkle and Halle Nett allowed the Lancers to circle the bases.

Grace scored five runs in the fifth to pull back to 8-6 on the scoreboard; all of Grace's hits and runs in the inning came with two outs.

The Lancers had their first two batters single to begin the sixth inning, but another potential big inning was cut short due to a double play.

In the seventh, Grace's bats remained hot. Argo led off with a double, and McCorkle brought her home with a single.

Grace trailed by just one and moved McCorkle over to third base with a bunt and a ground ball. But on the final play of the game, Grace was thrown out by a whisker on an infield grounder, eliminating what would have been the game-tying hit.

Grace outhit HU 15-12 in the game, but three errors in the field hurt Grace's cause.

Argo hit 3 for 4 with two runs and an RBI, McCorkle was 2 for 4 with three RBIs, and Nett was 2 for 5 with a stolen base and an RBI.

O'Connor and Rickard each had two hits, and Avery Sleeth had a hit and two walks.

Chloe Huff pitched three innings and allowed two earned runs, and Lemler tossed four innings with three hits and one run allowed.

In game two, Grace quickly loaded the bases in the bottom of the first. Gardinier drew a walk to bring in Duran, and Rickard scampered home on a ground ball as Grace led 2-0.

Huntington scored four runs over the next two innings to retake the lead, but they didn't stay ahead for long.

In the bottom of the third, Gardinier parked a two-run home run over the left field fence to even the game at 4-4.

In the fourth, Lemler doubled and moved to third with two outs. O'Connor then produced a timely single to bring in Lemler for a go-ahead run.

The Lancers still led 5-4 as the game reached the final two innings. But Grace's defense hit a rut, committing four errors over the final two stanzas. Huntington capitalized with two runs in the third and three more in the seventh to effectively clinch the win.

Lemler was 2 for 4 with a double and a triple, O'Connor hit 2 for 3 with a run and an RBI, and Gardinier drove in three runs and walked twice in a productive day at the plate. Nett was also 2 for 5 with a steal.

The Lancers are at home two more times this week, including Thursday (3 p.m.) against Spring Arbor and Saturday (1 p.m.) against Mt. Vernon Nazarene.