By DAVE DYER

Staff Writer

BOSTON — It was a day that won’t soon be forgotten for five area NECBL players.

For at least one day in their careers, A.J. Bazdanes knew what Jonathan Papelbon feels like on an every day basis. Paul Kronenfeld and Mike Montville patrolled the outfield like J.D. Drew and Jacoby Ellsbury. Brett Mollenhauer and Mike Fransoso plugged up the middle infield like Marco Scutaro and Dustin Pedroia.

For one day, the group felt like major leaguers, playing on the historic diamond known as Fenway Park ”“ the home of the Boston Red Sox ”“ as part of Team NECBL.

The team beat Team USA 3-2 in an exhibition game on Monday afternoon.

Statistically, there will be nothing to brag about. Four of the five players combined to go 0 for 6 with Montville scoring one of the three runs for Team NECBL, but there were plenty of memories to go around.

It starts with Kronenfeld, the usual first baseman for the Sanford Mainers, who not only got the honor of patrolling the same area that Dwight Evans and Trot Nixon made famous, but was the only member of the group to be plugged into the starting lineup.

“It was awesome,” Kronenfeld said. “I loved it. Being out there, this is one of the biggest stages in baseball. It’s an awesome venue, and just to play in a major league park is awesome. (Team USA0 is some of the best college baseball players in the country, and for our league to put together a team and beat them, that’s pretty huge for us.”

The Georgia Tech product caught all three fly balls that were hit his way during the contest, as he played through half the contest.

Mollenhauer, the Mainers everyday shortstop, took the field midway through the contest. He experienced what many shortstops do at Fenway – an unpredictable infield – as he made an error on his first fielding attempt. Much like other major league shortstops, Mollenhauer redeemed himself, turning a double play by himself later in the ballgame.

It was a particularly memorable day for Montville, who patrols the oufield in Sanford, and Fransoso, the Old Orchard Beach Raging Tide shortstop. Both players came out in the field later in the contest, much like they had for years growing up. Both Montville and Fransoso are best friends, having built their relationship on the ballfields in their hometown of Portsmouth, N.H., and played at Fenway together.

“To be on the field with him one more time, that was really cool,” Montville said. “We played against each other earlier in the season, which was kind of weird, but it was good to be on the same team together again. We were just sitting on the bench at the beginning of the game, just enjoying the moment, and it’s a cool day, especially to be together with him.”

Bazdanes, a Mainers starting pitcher, got to live the life of an MLB closer in the ninth inning. Jogging out of the bullpen, Bazdanes toed the rubber on the mound and induced a groundout and hurled a strikeout in his short work, before being pulled. With the biggest support group of family and friends of anyone on Team NECBL in the stands, Bazdanes received a standing ovation as he made his way to the dugout.

“It’s a lot like every other situation, besides the field difference,” Bazdanes said. “Once you do it for so long – I’ve been doing it for 20 years now – it’s a lot of the same stuff, just a different feeling. It was a good time, it was cool.”

Bazdanes found one part of Fenway that doesn’t compare to the Mainers home at Goodall Park.

“I looked in the dugout and said it was [worse] than our dugouts,” Bazdanes said.

The game will soon be forgotten, to be lost in the annals of the history of the NECBL as the years go by.

But for five ballplayers, the memories will last a lifetime.

— Contact Dave Dyer at 282-1535 ext. 318 or follow on Twitter @Dave_Dyer.