From left, Dunkirk senior captains Dylan Bankoski, Paul Trippy and Greg Orcutt pose with the Section VI Class A Finalist plaque. OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms

HAMBURG — The Dunkirk baseball team had a dream season in which it won the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 title and the Section VI Class A2 title.

However, like most seasons, it still ended with a loss.

Battling with Class A1 champion Amherst for the overall title in Saturday’s crossover at Frontier High School, the Marauders saw their final game of the year get away from them in an 18-0 loss in five innings.

“Nothing today can take away from the excitement we created the last few weeks,” Dunkirk head coach Frank Jagoda stated. “You’ve got kids that are playing and believing in themselves, believing in what we’re doing and we just ran into a bad spot today.”

Early on in the game Dunkirk starter Anthony Cosme struggled to find what seemed to be a shifting strike zone and it led to several walks. After giving six batters the free pass and being responsible for the first four runs of the game, Coach Jagoda switched pitchers.

Unfortunately, it just continued to not be the day for the Dunkirk Marauders.

Amherst led the Marauders 6-0 after three innings and that soon grew to 14-0 as Dunkirk struggled to find the strike zone, but even when the Marauders did hit their spot, the Tigers had a bat there.

“They’ve been in the finals four years in a row from what I understand,” Jagoda said about Amherst. “They’ve won three consecutive, so we knew what we were running into. We didn’t hit early, they got ahead. We could actually read the catcher’s signs and all of a sudden we started hitting some line drives if you notice and we just started teeing off, but we were just so far behind and Amherst made outs. That’s all you need when you’re up 6 or 8-0, you just need one out at a time and keep moving. I think they’re a well coached team and I wish them well in the Far West Regional.”

Dunkirk managed to make good contact on Amherst starter Evan Beiter, but was unable to materialize anything on the scoreboard. Paul Trippy, Josh Lemanski, Greg Orcutt, Anthony Piede and Gabe Valentine all hit singles for Dunkirk.

“The catalyst, the leadoff hitter Paul Trippy and what Greg has done on the mound,” Jagoda said about his seniors who will be most difficult to replace. “Then how about the job Gabe Valentine did behind the plate. He caught every pitch of every inning of every game and we were hurting behind the plate for a backup. Gabe was willing to sacrifice everything and he had an outstanding season. All the guys, Trippy in the leadoff, Orcutt standing tall on the mound and Henry Leone, Mr. Clutch with his RBIs. We had a couple of guys hurt and I give Thomas Shaffer and Dylan Bankoski a lot of props because they came back after 6-8 weeks not playing at all. We have just an unbelievable kid in Davi Alvalle and Peter Felt.”

While the Tigers move on with a big victory there is nothing for the Marauders to be ashamed of after a terrific 19-4 season winning both the league and sectional titles.

“It makes it tough because we have got a number of seniors that put at least three or four years into this varsity program,” Jagoda said. “They’re going to benefit hopefully when they move on to play college ball or whatever they do. Hopefully in life we’ve taught them a few lessons and I can’t thank them all enough. Hopefully the next group — we had 21 kids on our roster this year — that the next group of 11 or 12 guys that are coming back and some jayvee players keep the program going where we’ve put it.”

The group of seniors that chased a sectional banner finishes their careers still accomplishing that goal.

Even more important than the success on the field, the players have grown to be great off the field. Four of the 10 seniors on the team, Peter Felt, Henry Leone, Paul Trippy and Gabe Valentine are all in the Top 10 of their graduating class academically.

“What I’m really proud of is we have four kids in the top 10 of our class,” Jagoda stated. “At the end of the day, you have to look at what is really, really important. They don’t understand that now, but we understand that and hopefully they’ll be better for it in their future.”