Former Nashua Silver Knights Max Burt, left, and Mickey Gasper on together on the Somerset Patriots, the Yankees Double-A team, which has been in Manchester all week playing the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. (Courtesy photo)

MANCHESTER – Mickey Gasper looked out at the field at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium earlier this past week, and the memories came flooding back.

The last time he had played on this field, he was a standout sophomore catcher with Merrimack High School, and the Tomahawks lost a heartbreaking 5-4 Division I championship game at the hands of Concord.

“Playing here since the state championship (game) is cool,” Gasper said. “We were in the third base dugout back then, too, same as now. It feels cool, feels smaller than before looking at right field. Feels like a little more of a short porch nowadays.

“It’s a cool feeling to come home, brings back a lot of memories. Really good memories.”

This week Gasper has been back as a professional ballplayer, every kid’s dream come true. And he’s on the same Somerset Patriots team as his good friend, Max Burt. Both are former Nashua Silver Knights, although they weren’t on the same team, a year apart. Burt played at Holman in 2015 and Gasper was the FCBL Player of the Year on a Knights title team in 2016.

And now it’s a race to see who can make it to the Major Leagues first, each one rooting the other on.

“It’s been great,” Burt said. “We’ve been together really since our professional careers have started. So whether it be off-seasons, or during the season the majority of the year.

“He’s one of the best hitters I know. It’s always fun to pick his brain and watch him go to work on a daily basis. We’re both really competitive and we push each other.”

Gasper has had a good season so far, despite the fact he’s not playing every day, hitting .292 with three homers, eight RBIs and an OPS of .910 in 20 games while playing first or catching.

“It’s been what I had hoped for so far,” he said. “Just trying to make the most of every day. Got a great coaching staff that’s always willing to work on the field to try to help make us better. So far so good. It’s still June. Got a long way to go.”

The Yankees are definitely getting Gasper used to playing a position rather than DHing, something he hasn’t done all season. “I don’t mind, as long as I’m in the lineup somewhere,” he said, “with a smile on my face.”

The return to New Hampshire has been great for Gasper, as his parent moved from Merrimack back to New Jersey, where they were from originally. But they followed him back to the Granite State as the Patriots were facing the New Hampshire Fisher Cats in a six-game Easter League series.

“It’s cool playing in front of people I grew up with and had been in my life a long time, when this was just a longshot dream,” he said. “The ones who believed in me. They saw the vision, too, how hard I worked.”

Gasper got off to a good start, despite missing nearly two weeks with a sprained ankle. He feels fortunate he was able to break camp and be assigned to the Patriots, and missed the first three games of the season. He knows being on the field is key.

“I just want to show them I can be on the field every day, play first,catch, prove to them the versatility and ability to stay on the field is an asset. Once they said I was good to go I felt ready to go.”

Gasper has one more year after this before becoming a minor league free agent. Being in Double A right now, he said, “was part of the plan. But if somebody were to tell me four years ago I’d be in Double A, I’d say I want to be in Triple A.

“I’m just trying to put together good at bats, play defense, and see when mine name’s in the lineup,” he said. “That’s the nature of the business. You want to be out there every day.”

Gasper is adjusting to not being in the lineup every day, something he was used to ever since his sophomore year at Bryant University.

“Ever since then, I always feel I’ve had a knack for being ready, and when my name’s in the lineup, I’ll be ready to go.”

This is Gasper’s first full season in Double A, and he’s adjusting to the higher level. “A lot of starters have two-plus pitches and a good third one,” he said. “A steady diet of mixing. You’ve got to take advantage of the strikes you get. It’s definitely an adjustment because you only get one pitch, maybe two to hit in an at-bat.

“You have to make the most of the ones you get.”

He and Burt, he said, challenge each other and have been at Double A from the start. Burt, meanwhile, has been fighting it at the plate in terms of batting average, but he’s been inching up to .200 of late, at.197 at last look, but with power – four homers, 16 RBIs in 42 games. Plus five doubles and 11 stolen bases while playing at third, second or third, and only a couple of games a short, where highly touted prospect Anthony Volpe resides for the most part. He likes the left side of the infield, “but if my name’s in that lineup, I’m happy to play everywhere.”

“Obviously I’ve started off a little bit slow, but we’ve got such a good group here, it’s fun to show up at the ballpark every day,” Burt said. “And I’ve said this to a bunch of people: My focus is just to get better every single day. And I feel like I’ve been doing that. That’s kind of my only goal here and with the guys we have on this team, everybody wants to get better, everybody wants to get to the big leagues.”

Burt said he can improve on all facets of his game, consistency, hitting to all parts of the field “and playing my strong defense and making plays.”

Burt until last year when he was also with Somerset, hadn’t been back in the region in quite some time. The two spent an off-season or two in Houston and last year in New York.

“It’s nice to be back and playing in front of family and friends,” he said. Burt said he could see in spring training how good the Yankees might be, playing at an incredible clip right now. “It’s cool to watch,” he said. “And hopefully be up there one day with them.”

Meanwhile, on the flip side, Gasper thinks he has an idea to help his former team turn it around.

“They need to have a Mickey Gasper Bobblehead Night to turn their season around,” he said.