Lou Rabito: For Boyertown girl, a full summer on the diamond

Think you have a great story about what you did over summer break?

It won't top Wynnie McCann's.

Hers is the stuff of novels - only it's real and, at times, too real - complete with plot twists and a random act of violence.

McCann, a 16-year-old from Gilbertsville, is a pitcher and third baseman who in two months took her game from a local level and lifted it onto an international stage 2,000 miles away.

Her game isn't softball, however. It's baseball. That's the first twist.

Last month in Venezuela, at the Women's Baseball World Cup, McCann was the youngest member of the U.S. national team, which won a bronze medal.

"It was an amazing experience. It's like once in a lifetime," said McCann, a junior at Boyertown High.

World Cup games were supposed to be played in Maracay and Caracas. But the Americans never played in Caracas, because games there were moved after a Hong Kong player was struck by a stray bullet on Day 2 of the competition.

The player was wounded in the left calf while she was taking the field before an inning. She was treated at a hospital and released.

The Americans had been warned about violence in Caracas before they flew to Venezuela. They were in their Maracay hotel when a meeting was called to tell them about the shooting. Players from all 11 teams were locked down in their hotels afterward.

McCann, whose parents and two brothers stayed behind while she traveled with the team to Venezuela, said, "I was really upset that night because I worried that my family would be worried about me and they would want me to come home. But we all stayed together that night and made phone calls to our families and we all got through it.

"I felt like I went out the next couple of days and played for that girl, because I was upset that she had to go through this for no reason."

McCann estimated that there was a security presence of 20 guards at the Americans' hotel, a number that she said must have tripled after the incident.

Even before the shooting, she said, players had to travel off hotel grounds only in groups, and only when accompanied by armed security.

After the World Cup was suspended briefly, it resumed exclusively in Maracay, about 50 miles from Caracas.

McCann did well with the national team. In four pretournament and nine World Cup games, she batted .600 (9 for 15) and drove in eight runs. With her repertoire of fastball, curveball, change-up, and knuckleball, she went 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA in five innings on the mound.

It was the first time she had been on an all-female team.

McCann had played for 18-and-under and 16-and-under travel teams with the Boyertown-based Pine Forge Athletic Association, before her family decided to research opportunities in women's baseball.

The McCanns came across the U.S. national team and its open regional tryouts. McCann attended one in late June in New London, Conn., where she was among five players and one of two chosen to attend the team's trials in Cary, N.C.

There, 32 players vied for 20 spots. McCann and nine other teenagers were selected for a team that ranged in age from 16 to 37.

"She's always been the only woman or only girl playing with a bunch of boys or young men. So we didn't know how good she was compared to the rest of the women in the country or in the world," said her father, Bob.

"It was a neat experience to get to see that at such a young age, she is extremely good."

U.S. coach Don Freeman raved about her.

"I love her to death," he said. "She's a really good competitor, really intense."

Freeman saw that intensity early in the tournament.

McCann went 3 for 3 at the plate during the four pre-Cup games and hit safely in her first four at-bats in Venezuela. Her streak ended in her next at-bat, and she was upset when she returned to the dugout.

Freeman calmed her by asking if she knew how many baseball players had hit 1.000 in their careers.

"She's an awesome kid," Freeman said. "I hope year after year after year she keeps pursuing this opportunity."

Opportunities in women's baseball are few. The World Cup is held every other year, but Freeman said officials were trying to create tournaments for the in-between years.

In the meantime, McCann plans to continue with travel baseball, and she is thinking about softball, too. In late August, she attended a tryout for a travel softball team. That was the first time she had played the sport, her father said.

"I definitely want to try to do softball, if that gets me a scholarship," Wynnie McCann said. "But I want to play baseball as long as I can."