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.
