Cary, North Carolina - 254 Division II baseball programs started the 2016 season. Only two remain. And after defeating Lander 4-2 Thursday evening at the USA Baseball Complex, Millersville will take on Nova Southeastern in a best-of-three series for the national championship.

The Marauders (53-5) become just the third PSAC team to ever play for the national championship. Thursday's win over Lander wasn't pretty, but the Marauders found a way with gutsy pitching from rookie Cordell Shannon, Stephen Muscovitch and Reid Anderson, and timely hitting from Chas McCormick and Dan Stoltzfus.

"It doesn't matter at this stage in the game how we win," said head coach Jon Shehan. "We just have to get a W."

The Marauders stranded four runners in the first four innings and fell behind 2-0 on a two-out homer in the third. But Shannon and the staff rolled three inning-ending double plays and closed the seventh and ninth innings with punch outs. The offense stranded seventh runners, but McCormick delivered a bases-loaded single against Brandon White, Lander's top reliever, to give the Marauders the lead, and Stoltzfus, the all-time RBI leader at Millersville drove in McCormick with a single in the seventh, giving the Marauders one extra run of breathing room.

Millersville has played from behind only 18 times in 58 games, and three of the team's five losses came when the opponent scored first. The homer in the third came after a two-out walk. Lander had set a program record with 97 homers on the season but Shannon wasn't rattled. The freshman, following in the footsteps of Tim Mayza in 2011 (the last Marauder freshman to pitch in the tournament), responded by inducing a pop up to end the inning. He then marched through the Lander lineup into the seventh, scattering just one more hit and two walks over his next four innings.

"When (Shannon) committed here last year, his dad called me and said we would win a national championship," said Shehan. "I chuckled because I know how many teams there are in Division II and how hard it is to do that. Maybe he's a prophet. We'll find out. We knew Cordell came here to win. He wanted the ball in these situations. He had a lot of Division I offers but he wanted to come here and win. That's why we give him the ball in these big situations."

Shannon exited with a runner on second and two outs in the seventh, leading 3-2. Matt Ulrich, the Marauders' one-out specialist, issued a full-count walk to the No. 9 hitter, bringing Zach Daly, owner for 23 home runs, to the plate. Stephen Muscovitch, who had not pitched since May 9, came on and fanned Daley to end the inning.

"Muscovitch made maybe the biggest pitch of the season, striking out Daley with the slider," said Shehan. "That was enormous to come in after the walk to the nine hole hitter."

After Stoltzfus' 19th RBI of the postseason in the seventh, Anderson entered, and after a walk to the second batter of the eighth, he rolled a 6-4-3 double play. Lander singled with one out in the ninth and drew a two-out walk to put the go-ahead run at the plate, but Anderson caught Gatlin Minick looking for the final out.

The Marauder pitchers gave up just four hits but walked seven. Shannon allowed three hits and walked four over 6 2/3. The win improved him to 9-1. Anderson's save was his first.

McCormick and Stoltzfus continued their incredible postseason runs. McCormick went 3-for-4 with a run and two RBIs. Mitch Stoltzfus singled twice, helping the Marauders to 10 hits. McCormick has had 11 hits in his last five games.

The Marauders return to the diamond on Friday at 3 p.m. for the first of a three-game series with Nova Southeastern, which is also unbeaten. Game two of the series is set for Saturday at 3 p.m., with game three following if it is necessary.

"We all know the ultimate goal is to win the national championship," said Shehan. "If you look back at our signing classes, one of the questions we ask is 'Why did you come to Millersville?' I'd say 90 percent of them said because they want to win a national championship. That's important. We've recruited guys that want to win. It's a selfless group...It's a special season no matter where we end up."