2025 WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

May 30, 2025

Lyndsey Grein

Melyssa Lombardi

Kai Luschar

Kedre Luschar

Oregon Ducks

Postgame Press Conference

Oregon 6, Ole Miss 5

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from Coach Lombardi. If you have an opening statement, feel free.

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: Just an unbelievable battle by our team. I'm so proud of their fight. All year long, they've been put into different situations and having to come through, and I feel like all these situations throughout the year has prepared them for this evening.

You could see we jumped ahead, and then the last inning that they tied it up, I think our team early in the year, that would have affected them, but this team right now, not at all. They know that they're going to win the ball game, it's just we might not always know exactly what it's going to look like, we just know we're going to win. If we have to extend innings until we get there, we'll do it.

Just to watch our defense, unbelievable. I think of the at-bat that Emma had to open up the last inning, and then for Kedre being very patient at the plate, waiting to get her pitch. I felt like she was going to walk in that run or get a base hit.

Total team effort. I can't say enough about this group. This group is a special group. Version seven is special, and I'm just very happy to be a part of it.

Q. This one for Kedre and Kai. After the game I got to talk with both your parents, who told me the moment both you touched the softball field, you were ready for a moment like this. When did you both realize you were ready for a moment like this to come your way where, Kedre, you had to obviously be patient and take that walk, and, Kai, for yourself, I believe in that fifth inning, in that double, that really got things going for the offense for you guys tonight.

KEDRE LUSCHAR: Yeah, I think just we're ready to go at any point and we all have each other's backs. One thing about us is we're going to fight no matter what, and it was really cool to see that tonight, that there was no way we were letting them beat us.

KAI LUSCHAR: Yeah, it was just incredible, the fight that we had. They're a great team. They fought hard too. And we just knew we had to stick with it and we'd end up on top.

Q. Lyndsey, there's a lot of career highs for you after that 9.1 innings, 94 strikes, 144 pitches. 46 of 64 after reentry. And for all these numbers and stats, it was the therapy you were giving Rylee early, and it looked like some kind of team message there in the middle of the tenth that the cameras got. What were you saying to your teammates while you were gutting out probably the gutsiest performance of your career?

LYNDSEY GREIN: I knew my teammates had my back regardless. I knew before we got here we were going to pull it off. We didn't know what it would look like, but the Ducks were going to leave with a win today.

I told my teammates as long as there's innings and we have outs to spare, I will stay here until 8:30 the next -- or today, and however long it was going to take for us to win. But today wasn't the day that version seven ends their season. That's in long, long ways ahead. So we have a lot more to do.

Q. Just for the sisters, what is it like watching a pitcher warrior through and excite the whole club going into the dugout? She was pretty excited multiple times really late in the game and probably the only one with energy tonight from us in the press box.

KEDRE LUSCHAR: Yeah, I love Lyndsey. She's a competitor, she's so fierce. I put her up against any hitter in this country and she's going to win, and I just know it. I trust her, I believe in her, and she's so awesome to play behind.

KAI LUSCHAR: Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. Playing behind her is unbelievable. She just gives such great energy. And it's funny, even at practice, she's super competitive and fierce. And I think a saying we have had all year is iron sharpens iron. I think she's a huge reason for our offense stepping up the way it has this year.

Q. Lyndsey, obviously you start this game and then you finish it, but you have the downtime in the middle where you're not in. What are you saying? What are you doing? How does your process look when you're in the middle of the game when you're not in the circle?

LYNDSEY GREIN: Yeah, I mean, my job then is to cheer on my teammates and be there for them in any way they need, whether that looks like helping Elise or Staci or grabbing them water or Gatorade or whatever they need. Just cheering them on. My role turns from pitcher to cheerleader but still being involved.

Q. Kai, last night you told me after the Stanford loss that you told each other as a team you wanted to play more games together and you wanted to trust the process. How has, since that moment, that fueled this team that you guys have been able to find a way to win and continue playing more games together this season?

KAI LUSCHAR: Yeah, we talked about it earlier. Just when Dez said she wasn't ready to hang up the cleats, that day, when we played Stanford, and we said the same thing today. We're going to fight no matter what. And in those moments we just know that if I don't get it done, someone behind me will. And just trusting in the process, trusting all our hard work and, yeah, just laying it all out there.

Q. Lyndsey, I realize there's a lot of at-bats to go through, but if you could talk through a couple of them. When you reenter, there's two on, one out, you get a strikeout and a fly-out to get out of that jam. They tie it in the seventh in a big spot. What was going through your mind when they tie it there and then to refocus and have the one runner in scoring position scenario there in the tenth? What was going through your mind in those various at-bats?

LYNDSEY GREIN: Yeah, obvious it was just a no way mentality. I think one of the things that motivates me is when I glance up and look at my teammates, and that gets me really motivated, just to do it for them.

And like I said earlier, today wasn't the day for our season to be over. So working really hard with Coach and working hard with Emma. Emma was a huge part of that game. She kept me dialled in and kept the energy really positive, which was super helpful.

Q. Kedre, you've, I would imagine, had a lot of walk-offs in your time in high school and to Oregon. Where does this one rank on the bucket list of walk-offs you have had in your long career right now?

KEDRE LUSCHAR: Definitely might be the top one. It was pretty fun.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, players.

Questions for Coach Lombardi?

Q. Missy, she was one pitch shy of Jordan's high mark under your tenure, and I know how much you don't like throwing pitchers that much, but you're going to go out on your shield that way. What's going through your mind as it keeps going? Because I know internally you're going to go out with your pitcher in the circle; at the same time the numbers are getting where they're getting, and she's dominant in extras, but 144 is still 144, and I know you're not very comfortable with that.

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: Lyndsey is just a straight-up competitor on the mound. There's no way she's coming out of that game. There's no way. She's going to finish it.

What I love is that we talk about -- at Oregon, we talk about it all starts in the weight room. And the reason why Lyndsey was able to finish that game is because it all starts in the weight room. What she's done with Coach KJ has given her the strength, the endurance she needs to start a game like that and come out and reenter it and finish it and get better as the game went on. She got better as the game went on.

Q. How awesome is it to see Dez have this really good post-season and come through again in another big game?

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: I love Dez. She just has such a huge heart, big smile. I feel like our athletes are just drawn to her. She wants to do good for the team. And just to watch how much she's grown from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, and from the end of the year to post-season, she's not really to be done and she just keeps putting herself out there and extending.

I love what she's doing right now. Just a flat-out competitor.

Q. Coach, third walk-off in this post-season, the first two happening at the Jane. A lot of Duck fans in attendance tonight. But how does this one compare? You're the home team, but you're so far from home. How does it compare to the previous two?

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: We felt like we were home. Our fans, our families were so loud. You could just hear them. We felt like we were playing at the Jane tonight. It was awesome to do this in front of your fans. To have three walk-offs and to do it three times in front of our fans was amazing.

I think about the walk-offs prior to this, and I was telling our athletes that that was something that was required of us to continue to advance, but I think those were things that were required because it was going to show up here in the World Series.

So any time they have an opportunity to understand how to keep fighting and fighting and know that we're going to win and we are going to walk it off, it just doesn't get any better.

Q. Can you walk through the strategy in the fifth to set up the lefty-lefty against Llamas? And she faces her again -- has to face her -- but you went to the circle before walking her there in the seventh and then the following at-bats and the game-tier, but the various strategy you had with the pitching change in the fifth and what you said to Lyndsey in the seventh leading into the walk to Llamas and the following bats thereafter.

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: Yeah, we love the lefty-lefty match-ups. Staci has been excellent in the post-season. That was a hard-fought battle. We didn't get what we wanted, and so from there pass the ball. Just like our hitters pass the bat, pass the ball.

When Lyndsey came out, I told her to be ready, that she was going to close this, and she was ready to go.

Q. Coach, you went with Elise in the middle of the game and went two-thirds of an inning and took her out, put in Lyndsey the rest of the way. But we didn't see Elise warming up in the bullpen. Is everything okay with her, or was that just you knew you were going with Lyndsey the rest of the way?

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: I'm sorry, say that one more time?

Q. We just didn't see Elise warming up again. Is everything okay with her, or you just knew that you were going to go with Lyndsey the rest of the way?

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: When Elise came in and I pulled her out, she wasn't able to reenter. So from there it's once -- I mean, we talked about going into the game, different things, different looks that we were going to do.

What you saw tonight, we've been doing all year long. Elise has been unbelievable coming in for us in middle innings. And for her to give us what we needed to get, I think we got one out for her, and then we went back to Lyndsey. And that's what we'll take. If it was one out or if it was three outs, whatever it is, we will take.

And I think that's what our team is finding out, is that it doesn't have to look a certain way. We feel very comfortable with everybody. And, like I said, I knew Lyndsey was probably going to come back in and close.

Q. What's the plan for you guys tomorrow in terms of will the team come here for Texas-Oklahoma, or will they stay at the hotel? How will you handle that? And then your thoughts on there's some drama tied to your next game, either in a rematch with Oklahoma or everything with Texas.

MELYSSA LOMBARDI: I'm excited for these guys to get a break. And I don't think about drama. There's no drama. It's about continuing to compete and fight here at the College World Series.

So whoever we play, we play. I feel really good about our team, and I'm excited to be standing here on Sunday.

THE MODERATOR: Any more questions? Thank you.