MELBOURNE, Fla. - Grace College's softball team traveled to Florida to test themselves amongst the NAIA Elite this weekend.

Grace's (3-6) first four games of the six game tournament will see them battle three teams in the receiving votes portion of the NAIA Top 25 Coaches Poll and No. 14 Keiser.

On Friday Grace battled RV Dort to eight innings before dropping the contest 8-5before being bested by No. 14 Keiser bested 9-3.

The Lancers kicked off the road trip against Dort on Friday afternoon. The Defenders struck first thanks in part to speed on the base paths to jump ahead 1-0.

Grace answered back in the home half of the second inning. Sage Ladig had a lead off single and then was bunted into scoring position by Halle Nett. Ladig came into score when Avery Sleeth singled to left field.

The third inning was scoreless and in the fourth Dort reclaimed the lead with two runs. The Lancers offense went quite over the middle innings and saw the deficit grow to 4-1 entering the bottom of the seventh.

Despite a strikeout to start the frame the Lancers showed resolve and Sleeth started a Grace rally with her second hit of the game.

Sleeth made her way to second before Allie Furches was tabbed to pinch run for her. The substitution immediately paid off as she used her speed to reach third on a passed ball. Molly Jones got on base after a dropped third strike and Lauren Kirkpatrick was walked to load the bases for Grace.

Paige McCorkle then pinch hit and had a two RBI double and Emma Hiss singled in a run to tie the game at four. The Lancers narrowly missed picking up the walk-off victory when the winning run was thrown out at the plate.

Dort fired back with four runs in the extra inning and despite an RBI from Hiss the Lancers were unable to claw back, falling 8-5.

The second game started with fireworks for the Lancers when Emme Meyering went yard to put Grace ahead of the 14th ranked Seahawks in the first inning.

The lead was short lived though as Keiser tied the game in the bottom of the frame and added three more runs in the second.

Meyering displayed her power again in the fifth inning with a two-run home run to pull Grace to within a run, but four more runs from the Seahawks sealed the contest for Keiser at 9-3.