John Sheppard was asked to say a few things about his Morristown-Beard baseball team. Sheppard, who was in his 23rd season as the head coach of the Crimson, saw a glimmer of light before the 2016 season.

He told the players “they had to never forget the first loss and how that felt. They were not comfortable with losing. They worried about disappointing each other. They weren’t going to lose. That’s when I knew that they were something special.”

The Crimson, the 2016 All Daily Record Baseball Team of the Year, went on to win 21 times and lost just five times.

Among those wins was a thrilling 4-3 victory over Randolph in the Morris County Tournament final, giving Morristown-Beard its first MCT team title in any sport.

The victory came via a wild three-run rally in the bottom of the seventh inning, after a play where the Rams thought had won and had a victory celebration. That enabled Tyler Faccenda to drive in the real winning run with a single to center field.

Faccenda’s single keyed a legitimate celebration for Morristown-Beard. It was the 400th victory of Sheppard’s coaching career, making the ending even more memorable.

“We were the seventh seed,” Sheppard said. “Everything fell just right for us. I always told the kids that regardless of the seed, you really have to earn the seed. Tournaments like the Morris County Tournament are game to game. We tried to make it that simple. We didn’t go in thinking we were going to win the tournament. We just went from game to game. When we started to realize we were advancing, we reached the final.”

But before they got to the MCT semifinal, the Crimson had to endure the death of senior Matt Giacquinto, a student to whom a lot of the baseball players was very close.

The MCT was postponed for a week to enable Morristown-Beard to honor Giacquinto.

“Events like that put everything else in perspective,” Sheppard said. “We made a conscious decision at the school to give the kids a couple of days to let them process what happened. We greatly appreciated that the tournament organizers gave the kids the opportunity to grieve.”

A week later, the Crimson were MCT champs. The Crimson also won the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference-Liberty Division, and were finalists in both Prep B and NJSIAA Non-Public B North.

“We were 21-5 and got to the final of each tournament we were in,” Sheppard said. “We won the county championship for the first time. It’s one of those things that you had in your mind that you’d like to do, but not many small schools get that far. For a school of our size, with 400 to 425 kids, to get into the final and win it? When you have the time to reflect, you think, ‘Do you realize how incredible that was?’ I think back and have to smile. There are always going to be stories about this particular win. And honestly, I never thought we were going to be part of it all.”