When passion and pain collide: Valerie Cagle's agonizing road back to softball's hallowed ground - ESPN

Editor's note: This story was originally published on May 18. It has been updated through the regional round of the NCAA tournament.

CLEMSON SOFTBALL STAR Valerie Cagle grabs her right arm as she stands in the pitcher's circle at Vartabedian Field in Pittsburgh. Using her left hand, she pulls her right arm across her chest, as firmly and as far she can.

It's May 14, 2022, and Clemson is playing Florida State in the final of the ACC softball championships. The Tigers, in just the program's second full year, are hoping to win their first conference title. But Cagle, the 2021 ACC Freshman of the Year and ACC Player of the Year, can't entertain such high hopes. She's just looking for a way to stop the pain.

I can't keep doing this, her brain flashes over and over again.

Cagle shakes her right arm, then grabs it again. She pulls it tight across her chest. Thousands of eyes are watching as she discreetly attempts a medical procedure on her own shoulder. She's trying to pop her biceps tendon, which had slipped out of its groove — again — back into place.

«I was trying to find some type of comfort and was hoping that putting the tendon back in place would alleviate some of that pressure,» Cagle says. «I was at the point, though, that nothing was helping.»

I can't keep doing this.

Cagle's velocity had dipped all season long as the pain level rose, and while pundits and outsiders attributed her struggles to a sophomore slump, a select few knew the truth. Most people watching Cagle that day surely think she is merely stretching, but Clemson's athletic trainer Katie Rovtar immediately recognizes what is going on. She has seen it before.

In the sixth inning, Cagle gives up a three-run home run. Clemson loses to FSU 8-6.

As Cagle