Clemson's Valerie Cagle earns ACC player of the week honors

Valerie Cagle (72) has had plenty to smile about early this season.

by Press Release - Tue Feb 21 12:33:37 GMT-04:00 2023

GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) - Clemson’s Valerie Cagle and Duke’s Claire Davidson earned Atlantic Coast Conference Softball Co-Player of the Week honors while Cagle took home the ACC Softball Pitcher of the Week award.

The Yorktown, Virginia, native led the No. 5 Tigers to a perfect 5-0 week, including two wins over No. 14/11 Northwestern and Ohio State each in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge. In the circle, Cagle threw 16.1 innings through four appearances to go 3-0 on the weekend with one save and 23 strikeouts. Against Furman in the midweek, she faced 15 batters, striking out seven through four innings of work. She carried that momentum into Friday night against the Wildcats limiting the No. 14 team to only four hits in four innings of work and struck out another seven, and then followed that by earning the save against Northwestern on Saturday pitching the final 1.1 innings with two strikeouts. She rounded out the weekend in the circle with a complete-game performance against Ohio State where she once again struck out seven batters while only allowing three hits.

At the plate, Cagle went the distance tallying a .529 average with nine hits, including four home runs and one double. She scored seven runs and had nine RBIs, and stole one base. She finished with a 1.294 slugging percentage and a .600 on-base percentage through the five games. She capped the weekend combining to go 6-for-7 in the two games against Ohio State with two home runs, five RBI and three runs scored.

This is Cagle’s third Pitcher of the Week and fifth Player of the Week honor of her career and the first time she garners the honors in the same week.

Davidson went 9-for-16 (.563 batting average) in five games at the TaxAct Clearwater Invitational, leading No.14 Duke to three nationally ranked wins over No. 4 Arkansas, No. 20 UCF and No. 25 Michigan. The junior posted five runs, four doubles, two home runs and four RBI over the weekend. Davidson also made an appearance in the circle, pitching 13.1 innings with seven strikeouts, only allowing four runs.