FRUITPORT – With so many talented athletes – mostly underclassmen – there’s no doubt that the Fruitport baseball team will eventually hit and score a lot.

At the moment, however, the offense remains a work in progress.

Occasionally the Trojans light up the scoreboard, like they did last Friday in a big 10-5 win over Reeths-Puffer.

But there have also been a lot of nights like Thursday, when Fruitport struggled to get anything going and fell to rival Spring Lake 2-1 in the third game of a series between the two teams.

It was a frustrating night for the Trojans, who were no-hit. Fruitport was handcuffed by Lakers starting pitcher Oliver Smies, who held the Trojans hitless through 4 2/3 innings, and Ryan Grimm, who did the same for 2 1/3 innings.

Fruitport fell to 6-9 overall and 3-9 in O-K Blue conference play.

Spring Lake, which won two of the three games against Fruitport this week, improved to 12-6 and 7-5.

“We are a young team, but we have to figure it out offensively,” said Fruitport Coach Nick Reed. “We need to see what makes us tick and figure something out to get the bats rolling.”

Spring Lake wasn’t much more successful at the plate, managing only two hits, but that turned out to be just enough.

The game was scoreless through four innings, although both teams had their chances.

The Lakers loaded the bases with one out in the first inning, but back-to-back flyouts ended the threat.

The Trojans had two runners in scoring position with one out in the bottom of the first, but Spring Lake got out of the jam with a strikeout and a popup on the infield.

Spring Lake finally broke the deadlock in the top of the fifth inning.

Derrick Paggeot doubled and a teammate tried to score on the play, but Fruitport centerfielder Cody Nash, an elite defender with a great arm, gunned him down at the plate.

Spring Lake followed with two-out RBI singles from Owen Smies and Gerrit Lyyski to gain its margin of victory.

Fruitport finally got another base runner in the seventh inning on a leadoff walk by Ryan Bosch.

Bosch advanced to third on a failed pick-off attempt, then scored the Trojans’ only run of the game on a balk.

But Fruitport failed to get the tying run on base, ending the game with two harmless flyouts and a groundout.

“It has been the theme of the year,” Reed said about his struggling offense. “We just haven’t been able to put the ball in play and string together a few good at bats. We are just not in a good spot hitting-wise right now.”

The Trojans had a solid pitching performance from Trevor Rusnak, who allowed two runs on six hits in seven innings while striking out four batters.

“Trevor (Rusnak) is working back from an arm injury,” Reed said. “Today we stretched him out and he pitched well. Our pitching and defense haven’t been the problem, it has been getting the offense back in gear.”