WASHINGTON — The capital power brokers filed into an elementary school lot, beyond barricades covered in wrinkled advertisements. On the diamond, the players warmed up beside a giant-headed Abraham Lincoln mascot with a slightly menacing smile. Off it, heavily armed security guards lined the grounds.

“It has that small-town feel to it,” said Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican of Florida and a semi-reluctant outfielder in Wednesday evening’s annual softball game between the women of Congress and the women of the Fourth Estate. “It just feels like Anytown, U.S.A.”

It doesn’t, exactly.

But for a moment, in this city of irrepressible cynicism and occasionally rose-colored outfield sunglasses, it could look like it, at least for the game’s truest believers.