Kalli Quillen's scorching bat leads Edison to rainy win

MILAN — A little bit of rain wasn't going to slow down Kalli Quillen. The Edison senior is too locked in. She hit the ball so hard Friday it probably didn't even get wet until it hit the ground. The end result was a 4-for-4 night with two triples in a 12-3 Edison (5-9) victory over Seneca East. The spotless showing at the dish came two days after Quillen went 3-for-3 at Oak Harbor with two home runs. "I don't really know, honestly," Quillen said of what's gotten into her. "At the beginning of the season, I was getting really frustrated with how I was hitting. I wasn't making the best contact. I just kept working on it in practice and just started getting hot, I guess." With the scorching end to the week, the center fielder Quillen raised her season average to .429. The homers on Wednesday were her first two of the season, and the triples on Friday were also her first two. Quillen has doubled five times this season, driven in 12 runs and scored 15 times. "She's driving the ball," said Edison coach Jason Caponi, who first coached Quillen nearly a decade ago. "She's hot right now." On Friday, Quillen singled in her first at-bat out of the 2-hole after an Audrey Linder double. Sophia Guerra's sacrifice fly scored Linder, then Isabella Wilson's single brought in Quillen for a quick 2-1 lead. Quillen, also a volleyball setter and basketball scoring guard, led off the bottom of the third with a triple to left center, and Guerra drove her in with a single. Then in the bottom of the fourth, Quillen roped another liner that nearly reached the deep left-center fence on the fly and flew around the bases for her second three-bagger. She scored on a wild pitch. "We've been working with Kalli since basketball," Caponi said. "'Keep your hands in tight, because you've got the power.' She's buying into it now." In Quillen's final at-bat on a rainy day that saw the baseball game called off in the third inning but somehow featured Edison softball making it to the finish line, she rocketed a single on the ground right up the middle. That sparked Edison's offense in the sixth, and after two walks, freshman Peyton Taylor tripled to right-center to clear the bases. Ivy Kluding grounded out to score Taylor for the final 12-3 margin. "Once one of us gets hot, the rest of us get hyped up and excited and we all just start to hit," Quillen said. Senior right-hander Sophia Guerra finished the game off with a 1-2-3 seventh. She walked the game's first batter on four pitches but settled in from there. Despite needing to throw nearly every ball that hit the dirt out of play to get it dried off, Guerra kept her composure, allowed three hits and struck out four. "Soph is starting to realize if she just throws strikes, she has help behind her," Caponi said. "She's been a great, great upperclassman. I couldn't be more proud of her." Before Edison's Friday game had even concluded, its Saturday matchup with Brookside was canceled. That meant first-year coach Caponi got a chance to give his team a day off before a challenging matchup with Huron on Monday. First, they stopped out at Pizza Post in Norwalk for dinner and a chance to dry off. The Chargers had ended the week with a resounding win, and if Quillen keeps this up there'll be more victories in their future. "This has been awesome," Quillen said. "(Caponi) coached me when I was younger and kind of made me the softball player I am today. It's awesome to have him come back for my senior year, and he's really meshing well with our team and everyone is gelling." Seneca East 100 200 0 — 3 3 0Edison 202 314 x — 12 11 1 WP: Guerra. LP: Martin 2B: (E) Kluding, Linder. 3B: (E) Quillen 2, Taylor