Cary, North Carolina - A Millersville baseball season for the ages came to an end Saturday on the grandest stage of Division II. The Marauders, who set a PSAC record with 53 wins, finished as the national runner-up following an 8-6 loss to Nova Southeastern.

Only the third team from the PSAC and the region to play for the championship, the Marauders needed two wins Saturday after a 2-1 loss to start the best-of-three series Friday. Millersville raced to an early lead, scoring three runs on five singles in the top of the first, but the big bats of Nova scored all eight runs in the third and fourth innings. Four of the runs came on a pair of two-run homers and half were of the unearned variety.

"Congratulations to Nova Southeastern. They played very, very well," said Millersville Head Coach Jon Shehan. "They do things the right way. Give them a lot of credit. We just didn't get it done the last couple of days; didn't execute in a couple areas and they took advantage. They are a very good club because they can exploit those mistakes. I thought we swung the bats better today but ran of gas in those middle innings and let that one big inning get away from us."

Millersville out-hit the Sharks for the second consecutive game (11-10) and after falling behind 8-4, nearly erased the deficit with a relentless comeback. John Brogan recorded a pinch-hit, RBI single in the eighth to bring the Marauders within three, and after a leadoff single in the ninth from Chas McCormick, Dan Stoltzfus singled, and Ben Snyder hit a sacrifice fly. But that was when the rally was stopped. Devin Raftery, who closed three games in the tournament and was named most outstanding player, recorded his 17th save of the season by working through 1 1/3 innings.

Snyder also drove in the game's first run, and David Summerfield plated two with a two-out single in the first.

Jonny Ortiz (7-3) picked up the win for Nova Southeastern, giving up four runs on seven hits over five innings. Senior Jim McDade, who entered the game 12-0, took his first loss of the season. Matt Ulrich and Reid Anderson combined for four innings of shutout work.

"We had an unbelievable year. Every guy stepped up, one through nine," said Summerfield. "Even the role players coming off the bench had key plays. The pitching staff had a great year. Sometimes things don't work out. It's a funny game."

Millersville won its fourth consecutive PSAC Eastern Division Championship, its second NCAA Atlantic Regional title under Shehan and won its first three games of the NCAA Championship tournament before running into Nova Southeastern.

"53 wins is going to be hard to repeat," said Shehan. "There were so many things that went our way all year long. The thing that I will remember about this club when I look back is that they do it the right way. These guys are class acts off and on the field. It's a brotherhood. They think about each other before they think about themselves, and that's what it's all about."

McCormick, Dan Stoltzfus and Mitch Stoltzfus were named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team. McCormick went 9-for-15 with five runs scored, three RBIs and three steals. Dan drove in a team-high five runs and hit .368. Mitch started four of five games behind the plate, hit .278 with a pair of RBIs and allowed only one stolen base.