FRUITPORT – The Fruitport softball team has had plenty of ups and downs this season.

The difference is that the downs don’t keep the Trojans down like they used to.

That was illustrated on Monday night, when Fruitport lost a late lead and fell to Holland Christian 7-4, then bounced back with a convincing 14-6 win in the second game of the O-K Blue conference doubleheader.

If the Game 1 loss had come earlier in the season, one loss could have easily snowballed into another.

“It would have been really easy to hang our heads,” said Fruitport Coach Bob Dorman. “We gave it away and it would’ve been easy for the girls to pack it in and give up, but they didn’t.”

Cleanup hitter Brylee DeWitt says her team is much stronger today than it was earlier in the season, when the Trojans started out 2-9.

“We’ve had instances where we didn’t bounce back,” DeWitt said. “So we made it a really big deal to come back in this game and went for it. We’re so much stronger than we were in the beginning of the season. I see so much improvement.”

Fruitport went right to work in the first inning in Game 2 when Kadence Springstead scored on DeWitt’s RBI groundout.

Holland Christian responded with two runs in the second inning to take a 2-1 lead.

The Trojans pulled ahead for good in the fourth inning when Maddy Prout hit an RBI single, Teagen Schultz nailed a two-run triple and Springstead added an RBI sacrifice fly, making the score 5-2.

Holland Christian scored one run in the fourth inning and one in the fifth to cut the Trojan lead to 5-4.

The Trojan bats sprung back to life in the sixth when Olive Staal hit a two-run single, Kendall Lee added an RBI single and DeWitt scored on a Holland Christian error, making the score 9-4.

In the seventh inning, Schultz produced a run with a sacrifice fly, Springstead hit an RBI single and DeWitt had a two-run double before scoring on a Holland Christian error.

Holland Christian scored two runs in the bottom half of the final inning.

Trojan pitcher Maddy Kohnke picked up the win, striking out three hitters in the complete-game performance.

In Game 1, Prout had an RBI double, Tatum Anderson added an RBI single and Staal had a two-run double.

Fruitport will next travel to Whitehall for a non-conference doubleheader on Wednesday as the team continues to prepare for the upcoming district tournament.

“Nothing has come easy, but nobody on this team quits,” Dorman said. “It’s been a struggle to keep things going at times, but I hope the girls see the big picture of what we’re playing for and they’ll be reminded of that.”