The Nova Southeastern Baseball team celebrates the program's biggest milestone to date on Friday, as the fifth anniversary of the Sharks' 2016 NCAA Division II National Championship has arrived. On June 4, 2016, the Greg Brown-led Sharks delivered the program's first national title with the 8-6 victory over No. 1 Millersville, capping off the historic first 44-win season.
 
As the reigning Sunshine State Conference champions following a league mark of 18-6 in 2015, there was a lot to prove. However, the title chase was no straight shot without obstacles for the Sharks. Despite winning seven of the eight SSC series, including at Tampa, at the time the top team in the nation with a 12-game winning streak and a 20-1 overall record, the Spartans still bested the Sharks for the conference regular season title with a two-game edge. After beginning the season with three straight Opening Weekend losses and an up-and-down 11-10 start, that alone was a notable accomplishment, but it was far from the biggest or last for the season.
 
A home sweep at the hands of Lynn on the weekend of March 11-12 prompted a team-wide reckoning that worked wonders, as the Sharks became red-hot from that point on. With a 33-6 record for the rest of the season, the Sharks didn't drop consecutive games at any point, piling up the wins at home (11-1 in that span), on the road (12-3) and in conference play (15-3). In fact, they went on separate eight-game home and road winning streaks, as well as 11 SSC games in a row and 15 straight against fellow DII foes, the only loss snapping that stretch being a rare Division I matchup with the University of Miami, another national No. 1 opponent, at the historic Mark Light Field in Coral Gables, where the Sharks battled hard to trail just 1-0 after five innings.
 
Earning the three-seed in the NCAA South Regional Championships, the Sharks returned to the University of Tampa campus and quickly made their presence known, with an 11-4 opening-round victory over West Georgia. Daniel Zardon was a force at the plate with three doubles and a three-run home run. A weather-delayed meeting with second-seeded West Florida followed, the game tied 3-3 through three and a half innings before the game was called for the night. Matt Hardy held the Argos off the board for the first five innings after play resumed the next morning, while an Andres Visbal solo home run put them ahead for good, en route to the 6-4 win. The Sharks then punched their ticket into the championship round with a 9-4 triumph over Delta State. Making just his second start of the season, Alexander Kline also kept his opponents scoreless for the first five innings, as the offense jumped to a 6-0 advantage thanks to two-run homers by Brandon Gomez and Jake Anchia.
 
The Statesmen rejoined the Sharks for the tournament's final day in the Regional Championship and refused to make it easy, dealing NSU a 3-1 loss to force a winner-take-all game two. It was the pitching staff that claimed the spotlight in the Regional Final as Jonny Ortiz guided the Sharks through 5.1 clutch innings, handing off to Devin Raftery with runners on the corners in a 3-0 ballgame and history on the line. Though he allowed one inherited runner to score, Raftery flat-out dominated, earning his South Regional MVP with 3.2 hitless innings and striking out six of the 11 batters he faced, including the all-important final hitter, to secure his 14th save and bring on the dogpile as NSU was set for its first trip to Cary, North Carolina and the DII College World Series.
 
In NSU's inaugural performance on Coleman Field at the USA Baseball National Training Complex, the battle with No. 2 Franklin Pierce was nothing short of gripping, as Visbal's ninth-inning, two-out RBI single brought home Sebastian Diaz and kept the Sharks alive for a few more innings of free baseball. Facing two outs and two strikes in the 12th inning, it was Jancarlos Cintron-Torres who stepped into the hero role and moved the Sharks forward, scoring Kavan Thompson on a walk-off RBI single to right field for the 4-3 victory. On the mound, Raftery showed up once again, with five shutout relief innings for the victory. Fourth-ranked Lander barely knew what hit them, as eight Sharks accounted for 15 hits and scored all their runs in the middle three innings of their 12-1 victory, featuring big boosts from Brandon Gomez (4-for-5, a double, two runs, two RBI), Thompson (3-for-5, a double, two runs, two RBI) and Dylan Woods (2-for-4, three RBI), as well as another home run and three RBI for Zardon. Meanwhile, Kline once again got it done on the mound, with a career-high eight strikeouts in six one-run innings.
 
With a trip into the national championship round on the line against Cal Poly Pomona, freshman sensation and future All-American catcher Jake Anchia filled in quite admirably for an injured Michael Hernandez with an absolute mammoth two-run home run for a 2-1 fourth-inning lead. Though the Broncos tied the game with an unearned run off Julian Loret de Mola in the top of the sixth, the Sharks quickly brushed it off, with Cintron-Torres and Visbal delivering RBI singles in the bottom half to go ahead for good. Ronald Patella took the mound and needed just ten pitches to retire the side, before handing off to Raftery, who gave the Sharks two shutout innings for yet another dominant save, as Nova Southeastern's 5-2 victory made them one of the final two teams left standing, facing off against their third No. 1 opponent of the season.
  To say the opening game of the Championship against top-ranked Millersville was tense is an understatement, but Alex Mateo proved focused and prepared for the pressure, earning his ninth win of the year after tossing eight innings with a single run allowed in the third, handing off to Raftery for his 16th save to put the title within reach. The offense mustered just one hit through the first three innings, but a fourth-inning game-tying homer from Gomez changed the momentum of the game. The sixth inning provided the eventual game-winner, as future Sharks assistant coach Kevin Suarez led off with a walk and scored all the way from first thanks to an error on a Visbal bunt single, granting NSU a 2-1 advantage that would stand to the final out.

No expectations for the next day's game to be easy, but after falling behind 3-0 in the opening frame, the Sharks had their work cut out for them. While Jonny Ortiz lived up to his Big Game Jonny moniker, buckling down to allow just one more run in his final four innings, it was Suarez that got the offense going, launching a two-run homer in the third. But it was the fourth when they really made their move, scoring six runs on just three hits to flip the script and take a commanding 8-4 lead. Zardon tied it with a two-run dinger, then Dylan Woods put them in front, scoring Diaz with a single. After a Marauder pitching change, a dropped fly ball in center field, the second error of the inning scored two more before Cintron-Torres concluded the scoring. Although the Marauders inched closer with a pair of late runs, Steven Fleming, Patella and finally Raftery delivered the required 12 outs after relieving Ortiz, closing out the 8-6 victory and setting the iconic scene, as Zardon scooped a grounder and threw to Visbal for the final out, and Anchia was the first Shark to embrace Raftery and commence the ultimate dogpile.

"Our expectation was winning a national championship, and our vision of winning a national championship was real and vivid to everybody here, even when we were 11-10," Brown said in postgame comments. "It was a critical point in our program history, if you will, because it changed the course of what this season looked like. But at 11-10, our belief was constant. We're 33-6 since, and all it was was literally a team meeting led by the leaders within our clubhouse talking about issues."
 
No surprise that the Championship Sharks squad was ripe with award-winners, boasting six 2016 All-SSC honorees, the 2016 SSC Pitcher of the Year, two All-Region honorees and two 2016 All-Americans. Devin Raftery was the NCAA South Region Tournament MVP and the NCAA Division II College World Series MVP. NCAA South Region All-Tournament Team members were Brandon Gomez, Devin Raftery, Kavan Thompson, and Daniel Zardon. On the NCAA Division II College World Series All-Tournament Team were Daniel Zardon, Dylan Woods, Kevin Suarez, Kavan Thompson, Brandon Gomez, Alex Mateo and Devin Raftery. Greg Brown was a Skip Bertman Award Finalist and was named the ABCA National Coach of the Year. Jake Anchia also later hauled in an ABCA/Rawlings Golf Clove (catcher) in 2018 and was named a 2018 All-American.

That 2016 team produced six MLB Draft selections (Daniel Zardon, 2016 17th round, Philadelphia; Alex Mateo, 2016 22nd round, Miami; Alexander Kline, 2016 29th round, Philadelphia; Jancarlos Cintron, 2017 24th round, Arizona; Joe DiBenedetto, 2017 29th round, Toronto; Jake Anchia, 2018 7th round, Seattle), as well as four undrafted MLB free agents (Devin Raftery, 2016, Houston; Matt Hardy, 2017, Milwaukee; Michael Hernandez, 2017, Miami; Dylan Woods, 2017, Anaheim) and four Independent League signings (Sebastian Diaz, Ottawa Champions, Can-Am League; Josh Glick, Windy City ThunderBolts, Frontier League; Jonny Ortiz, River City Rascals, Frontier League; Kevin Suarez, River City Rascals, Frontier League). After finishing his playing days with River City, Suarez returned to the Sharks as an assistant coach, working with hitters and as the Recruiting Coordinator for two seasons. The coaching staff from the 2016 squad are now all working in the Major League Baseball system (Head Coach Greg Brown - Tampa Bay Rays Minor League Hitting Coordinator, Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator Eric Cruz - Arizona Diamondbacks South Florida Area Scout Pitching Coach Justin Ramsey - Bowie Baysox Pitching Coach for Baltimore Orioles AA affiliate).

The program is planning a formal celebration and reunion for the 2016 team and all alumni in Fall 2021 when schedules can align better and a safe in-person event can be guaranteed.