Jagoda takes Marauders on late-season run

The Dunkirk Marauders have won multiple Section VI and league championships during Frank Jagoda’s nearly 30 years as their head coach.

They didn’t win either of those this season, and yet it was still one of Jagoda’s finest during his long tenure.

Dunkirk went 15-5 overall and 11-3 in Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 play.

Both its league and sectional title hopes couldn’t have been dashed by more formidable opponents.

The Marauders put together an eight-game late-season winning streak, including a walk-off 5-4 victory over Gowanda on May 16, to give themselves a shot at a split league championship with those same Panthers two days later.

Gowanda turned it around May 18 and beat Dunkirk 7-4 to win the league crown outright on its own way to a Section VI Class C championship.

Undeterred, Dunkirk began its Section VI Class B1 postseason run four days later as the No. 3 seed and picked up a 14-3 win over No. 14 Tonawanda. The next day, the Marauders beat No. 6 Alden 13-3 to set up a semifinal showdown with No. 2 Depew.

Dunkirk was up to the challenge May 25 in Depew, but a pair of first-inning runs proved to be enough for the Wildcats as they beat the Marauders 2-0.

Depew would go on to win its final five games to clinch a New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class B title with a 5-4 victory over Section IV’s Lansing on June 10 at Binghamton University.

On the season, Dunkirk had a .307 team batting average with 169 runs scored. The Marauders hit 35 doubles, two triples and five home runs while stealing 66 bases.

Dunkirk pitchers threw to a 3.39 earned run average with 131 strikeouts in 126 innings while holding opposing hitters to a .248 batting average.

In the field, the Marauders made just 33 errors in 549 chances for a .940 fielding percentage.

Seniors Brady Corbett and Tyler Karin made up Dunkirk’s middle infield and both were named First-Team league all-stars.

Corbett led the team with a .448 batting average, 28 runs scored, six doubles, 25 RBIs and a .724 slugging percentage, tied for the team lead in home runs with two and stolen bases with 12, and was second in on-base percentage at .590.

Karin led the team in on-base percentage at .598, tied for the team lead in stolen bases with 12 and was second in batting average (.421) and runs scored (27).

Corbett also went 3-0 with a 2.71 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 10 1/3 innings while Karin was 4-2 with a 3.74 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 39 1/3 innings.

Sophomore outfielder Dylan Bankoski, junior catcher Donnie Jackson and junior pitcher Zachary Zentz all represented the Marauders on the league’s Second Team.

Sophomore Paul Trippy and junior Jonathan Ganey were league Honorable Mention selections.

Putting all of those pieces together for another successful season was Jagoda, who is the 2023 OBSERVER/Post-Journal Baseball Coach of the Year.