Photo by Ron Szot Dunkirk Marauders baseball coach Frank Jagoda, a former Dunkirk player, pitched 15 2/3 innings in a Class Final that Dunkirk won 40 years ago today.

It was one of the greatest pitching duels in Section VI playoff history.

Forty years ago today on June 15, 1978, now head coach Frank Jagoda led the Dunkirk Marauders baseball team to a 16 inning 4-1 win over Williamsville North to win their third straight Class BB Section VI championship.

Forty years feels like a long time to the average person, but to the people that were at the former Hyde Park Stadium in Niagara Falls back in 1978, it feels like it just happened yesterday.

“Anybody you ask they’ll say they remember it like it was yesterday,” said Jagoda. “That game was draining, exciting, and intense the entire way.”

A previously written article in the OBSERVER at the time details a massive pitching duel that took place between Jagoda and Williamsville North’s Paul Webb that lasted for over four hours.

“That game just went on forever and ever,” said second ward councilman Marty Bamanto, who was also on the team. “You could feel the pressure through every pitch.”

One thing in baseball that isn’t seen anymore is a pitcher throwing more than nine innings. But in this game, Jagoda threw 15 2/3 innings. Jagoda was a horse all game long, striking out 14 batters, allowing seven hits and just the one earned run in the first inning.

“Frank pitched phenomenal,” mentioned Bamanto. “He probably thinks of it as a career moment. I just remember we were all exhausted — and on top of that — we all had exams the next day.”

The crazy thing about the pitchers — Webb and Jagoda — is that they both went on to play baseball at the University of Buffalo. Not only did they play together, but they became roommates. Jagoda says he and Webb still keep in touch.

Another thing to note that was different back then was that there was no state tournament. Regionals and Super Regionals were all that the players had.

“It was our Game 7, our championship game,” said Bamanto. “I remember hitting a triple in extra innings thinking it was over and it wasn’t.”

“It was just a battle,” added Jagoda. “There was a much bigger magnitude to that sectional championship — because there was nothing else. A lot of guys had a lot of at bats and just couldn’t score a run.”

It wasn’t until the top of the sixteenth when Dunkirk was able to strike for three runs to take a 4-1 lead.

In the previous OBSERVER article, a quote from former Dunkirk coach Al Stuhlmiller stated, “Frank is some kind of competitor. He just seemed to get tougher and tougher as the game went on. I can’t say enough about this team. Frank was just incredible tonight.”

When asked about what being a part of Dunkirk baseball meant to Frank, Stuhlmiller was the first person he thought of.

“It’s meant a lot to me and it’s meant a lot to the way I do things now,” said Jagoda. “I’m proud of the accomplishments that that team made.”

Dunkirk was supposed to play cross-town rival Fredonia, who won the Class B title, for the Super Regional title right after, but because this game took so long, it was rescheduled and played at Fredonia State at a later date.

“Every school in the area had good teams in those days,” said Bamanto. “I remember the Fredonia team having to sit in the stands during our game. Every inning during that game we were thinking in our minds we were going to win — it was just a matter of when.”

Fredonia ended up winning that Super Regional game. Jagoda injured his arm in the previous game, which is why he didn’t finish all 16 innings. He said for the Fredonia game he had cortisone shots so he could play and then didn’t throw at all in the summer to heal his arm.

The game had so much hype leading up to it, that Dunkirk mayor Gilbert Snyder and Fredonia mayor Charles St. George made a friendly wager on a case of beer and Red Wing jelly.

“It’s crazy how it happened forty years ago,” said Bamanto.

“I remember having pictures of some of us together when we were playing little league at age 13,” added Jagoda. “I played varsity in ’77, ’78, ’79, and I’ve coached 25 years. People forget I’m a guidance counselor too. I’ll always be a part of Dunkirk.”

Jagoda and Bamanto were both Class of 1979 at Dunkirk High School.

It was a classic for all classics and — forty years later — here we are still talking about it as though it happened yesterday.