Cranston native and La Salle product Gianfranco Messina was a part of the biggest moment in the history of the Salve Regina baseball program to date last Saturday, as the Seahawks earned their first-ever Division III College World Series berth.

Salve finished off a two-game sweep of Salisbury in the super regionals with a 14-12 triumph over the Sea Gulls, scoring all but two of their runs in the first four innings of the contest before adding the decisive pair in the final frame to seal the deal.

The Seahawks went up for good with two outs courtesy of a Matt D’Amato base hit that plated Brandon Grover, which was followed by an error from Salisbury shortstop Trent Waire that enabled Christian Homa to cross home after Tyler Cannoe made contact.

Instead of spectating from the dugout, Messina was behind the dish for the last outs after entering the game in the previous inning as a defensive replacement for regular starter Brady Smolinski, making his 21st appearance of the spring in the process.

It was the second tilt during the Seahawks’ national tournament run that the former Ram participated in, following on from his ninth-inning cameo on May 17 as Salve started off on the right foot in regional play with a 10-5 defeat of Colby.

After accounting for the Mules, the Seahawks kept the boulder rolling with a 4-2 decision over SUNY-Cortland and a 12-3 upending of Washington & Jefferson in the regional final to advance to the super regionals.

The opening game of the best-of-three super regional series was filled with momentum swings, as Salve pulled out to a 6-0 lead before Salisbury fought back with seven unanswered runs to assume control of proceedings.

An Andrew Kell sacrifice bunt gave the Sea Gulls a 7-6 advantage going into the bottom of the fifth, when the Seahawks’ Smolinski exercised his right of reply with a three-run home run over the center field fence to put Salve ahead 9-7 en route to a 9-8 victory.

With their place among the last eight teams standing assured, the Seahawks’ attention now focuses on their first College World Series opponent, a Birmingham-Southern team that is the unquestioned Cinderella story of this year’s tournament.

Representing a school that will be closing its doors at the end of the academic year, the Panthers punched their ticket by knocking off number-two national seed Denison 7-6 on Saturday, withstanding a late rally from the Big Red to keep on dancing.

Prior to embarking on his trip to the national stage, Messina has had success inside the batter’s box when given the opportunity, compiling an average of .333 from 21 at-bats with three doubles and six runs driven in while also scoring four runs.

The collegiate baseball career of Cranston native Daniel Baruch will come to a close with a second straight trip to the NCAA tournament, as he was a regular part of Bryant’s America East title-winning squad this spring.

Arriving prior to the season as a graduate transfer from Boston College, the Wheeler alum played in 42 games for the Bulldogs, hitting at a .248 clip with nine home runs and 34 runs batted in, the latter good for third on the team ledger.

Bryant secured its first conference championship in eight years Saturday with a 15-10 defeat of Maryland-Baltimore County, scoring at least once in every inning except the seventh to bring the Retreivers’ campaign to an end.

When the bracket for this year’s road to Omaha was unveiled on Monday, the Bulldogs were assigned as the fourth seed in the Raleigh regional, paired with hosts and number-ten national seed North Carolina State in Friday’s first round.

Played under a double-elimination format, the four-team regional also contains a James Madison nine making its first appearance since 2011 and a South Carolina unit that is one of 11 Southeastern Conference teams that qualified for the national field of 64.