It’s day six of pyc and 5G (Rachel’s Rays of Light) is ready to play the first softball game in the first afternoon class of the day. Rays of 90-degree sunshine warm the softball diamond. It’s a great day for softball!

The 5G girls sit on bleachers next to 2G under what the softball staff calls the “vip tent” behind home plate. The girls lather up with sunscreen and fill their water bottles with Hydralyte. Counselor Jessica Dalton and assistant counselor Charlene Campbell assign fielding positions and the batting order.

Softball instructor Grant Turgeon calls everyone’s attention. “It’s time to begin class in the best possible way:” he exclaims, “rock, paper, scissors.” Dalton faces 2G counselor Brooke Davis in a triple header that results in a win for 2G. Turgeon also calls on the dorms to select team names from popular baseball teams. For today, 2G will be the New York Yankees; 5G will be the Philadelphia Phillies.

The 12 light blue-clad 2G Yankees hustle out onto the field and pair up to warm up their arms with pitch-and-catch. Cami, 15, from Edmond, warms up her pitching arm while instructors Turgeon and Joel Hudson-Stewart give her pointers. Now it’s time to play ball.

Jessica from 5G leads off the Phillies. After a couple more batters, Turgeon yells, “Let’s hear some cheers, ladies!” The girls immediately respond with a loud cheer for Kassandra: “I see a hole out there. I see a hole out there. I see a H-O-L-E, hole, out there. So hit that ball out there, so hit that ball out there, so hit that B-A-L-L, ball, out there!”

Several girls walk before 14-year-old Christina is up to bat. Her dormmates cheer as she swings and hits the ball, but it goes foul. On the next pitch, she swings and misses, striking out, but the smile doesn’t leave her face. “I am glad I picked softball for open sports—I need to get some practice in!” she says.

5G’s Cheyenne, Cami and Darla all swing and connect with the ball and advance runners home. It looks like softball is a strong sport for 5G; at the top of the first, the Phillies have already put five runs on the board. After the third out, they cheer as they sprint out to their fielding positions.

“I am impressed with the first batting round, because I didn’t know how well they could bat,” Dalton said as she watched from beneath the vip tent.

“We have some really strong players,” Campbell adds, who has several years of softball experience. “They listened to the advice they were given and applied it. A lot of their girls have picked it up even if they haven’t had a lot of experience.”

On the bleachers, Dalton sums up her dorm in one word: “teachable.”

We look back at the game as we see the ball bounce off the bat straight toward the pitcher, Cami. She swiftly scoops the ball up, takes a second, and then whips the ball to first where Jessica catches the ball for the third out, only allowing one 2G runner to make it home.

Enthusiasm is running high in both dorms, and it’s only the first inning. Throughout the game, Turgeon occasionally pauses to give pointers to the girls on their batting form. Even when they miss the ball, they cheer, “That’s alright, that’s okay, we still love you anyway!”

“We really bonded pretty quickly. They are like a bunch of sisters together, even from the second day,” Dalton says.

First-time camper Wendy substitutes in for catcher. A 2G batter hits a foul. As the ball pops up and begins to fall, the workers cheer for Wendy to try and catch it—and she almost nonchalantly snags it in the nick of time. The campers erupt in cheers.

The 5G Phillies hold on to their early lead for a 6-to-2 win. The 5G and 2G girls line up and exchange high fives—then begin squealing as the softball staff bombards them with chilled water balloons, cooling them off from the heat. Some of them don’t burst, and the dorms get the chance to throw them back at the staffers.

The girls circle up and begin to cheer. Turgeon calls out, “Louder! You’re being too polite! Make soccer hear us!” The campers respond with a piercing cheer as instructors Rachel Culpepper and Danielle Underwood run around the circle and pick the two outstanding girls of the class, Christina (5G) and Ashlynn (2G), by busting water balloons on them.

Before heading off to water polo, 5G offers a thank-you chant: “Thanks for getting us off to a great start 2G and softball staff!”