CLEMSON — Tuesday night’s 9-1 win over Furman marked a homecoming party both for No. 18 Clemson and for the most decorated player in the softball program’s history.

Valerie Cagle, USA Softball’s 2023 Collegiate Softball Player of the Year, re-entered her old stomping grounds at McWhorter Stadium in her second season away from the program. This time, however, she was not fooling batters in the circle or launching home runs into the parking lot for the orange and white. Instead, she was in the third base dugout as an assistant coach for the visiting Paladins. 

“I have actually been in this dugout before,” Cagle said with a laugh. “The first year we hosted Regionals, we had to play over here when we were away, so not the first time but it was definitely a little bit different.”

After she got a new perspective, literally and figuratively, of a Clemson softball game, Cagle embraced several Clemson players and coaches for a postgame reunion after her two-year absence.

“Honestly, I was the one hugging everybody,” she said. “It’s just one of those things where you don’t get back to see them very often and so when you can, you try to make it count. I think at this point I’ve coached as many of them as I played with, so it is kind of fun having both sides of that too.”

Cagle’s historic career at Clemson included three consecutive NCAA Regional championship appearances, three first-team All-American honors, and a program-high .379 career batting average. In the circle, she notched 819 strikeouts, 86 victories, and 79 complete games– also all program records. 

After her collegiate career ended in 2024, Cagle was selected as the No. 1 pick in the 2024 AUSL Draft, playing 250 games in the league before moving to the Netherlands to play professionally. 

With the move, Cagle was unable to coach travel-level softball, and began looking for coaching availability on the east coast, near her family in Yorktown, Va.

“It was actually just randomly on Instagram, I saw that Furman hired a new coach,” she said. “I didn’t know (head coach) Mary Beth (Dennison) at all before, so I just reached out and said, ‘Hey, if you’re looking for anybody, I’d love to have a conversation.’”

A short while later, John Rittman, who coached Cagle throughout her tenure at Clemson, received word that a familiar face would be back in the Upstate.

“She had told me she took the job at Furman,” Rittman said. “She let me know and and you know, she’s living locally here, so she’s commuting up to Greenville.”

For Rittman and the Tigers, it was a little different seeing Cagle in the other dugout, but he was glad to see her and see her doing well.

“It seems like just yesterday she was here in uniform and  obviously one of the greatest players of all time,” he said. “She helped put Clemson softball on the map and is just a tremendous talent. Now she’s in the coaching business so I have no doubt that she’s going to do a great job coaching and it was good to see her tonight.”

Along with Rittman, Cagle also got to see five different players that she played with in her final season with the Tigers. To celebrate her homecoming, junior Julia Knowler, who manned first base in Cagle’s final season, knocked in two RBIs with a single against the Paladins.

“It was definitely weird seeing her on the other side, but it’s great having her back in McWhorter and seeing her again,” Knowler said. “I haven’t seen her in a couple years. So, definitely excited to have her back tonight on the other side.”

When Knowler was a freshman in high school in 2020, Cagle started as part of the inaugural Clemson softball team, when McWhorter Stadium was outfitted with 1,000 chairbacks. By 2024, over 241,000 fans had attended the venue to see Cagle, with some fans even designating a tailgating area behind right field called “Cagle’s Corner.”

Last year, McWhorter was named the NFCA’s Field of the Year as Clemson led the ACC in attendance. Over half-a-decade after Clemson broke ground on the softball program, Cagle got to see the stadium she saw built from scratch, decorated with over 1,500 eager Tiger fans in their home opener. 

“It’s always special to be back, Clemson is always so welcoming,” she said. “It’s still kind of hard for me to wrap my head around the impact that my career had, but obviously coming back on a night like this kind of puts it a little bit in perspective.”

Cagle is currently signed to play as a utility player for the AUSL’s Carolina Blaze this summer, so her playing career remains in full swing. But for Clemson fans, Cagle will always be remembered as a cornerstone of the Tigers’ softball program.

The Tigers will continue their season away from home this weekend, as they head to San Marcos, Texas, to play in the Bobcat Tournament. Clemson will open its five-game slate against Texas State on Thursday at 6 p.m.