2025 WOMEN'S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES

June 1, 2025

Patty Gasso

Cydney Sanders

Sam Landry

Isabela Emerling

Oklahoma Sooners

Postgame Press Conference

Oklahoma 4, Oregon 1

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

PATTY GASSO: Yeah, huge one for the Sooners. Personally kind of bittersweet because those are my people on the other side, and it's hard to play on such a big platform that means so much and is going to end somebody's season. It was hard, but super proud of that staff and all that they've done.

So really proud of Missy specifically getting back here. She's dreamed of this for a long time and has gone through a lot to get here. So really happy for her.

This team, I think it all started in the circle. It was KD that came out and really handled her business pretty well. Gave up a run, but that's expected. We answered back pretty quickly. And then we had Sam come in and a good match-up with their three hole, I believe, and just kind of let her ride it through.

We're in elimination time now; so you do everything and anything you can. Just super happy for Cyd Sanders and her senior year. What a wonderful memory to have with these home runs, and just really timely hitting for some of them, and then, at the same time, we left a lot of runners on base. But that means we're getting on a lot.

Very pleased. And I'll tell you just straight up, right in front of them, like, we win a game and we walk over and we shake hands. And we walk in the dugout like, hey, okay, and I'm like: Do you know what we just did? Does anyone know what we just... we're in the Final Four.

Yeah, we're good. Swaggy swag.

Can somebody celebrate? Can we do something fun?

They're just the most calm, chill -- sometimes I'm like, I don't know that you know. Do you know? Do you know?

Yeah, we're good. We're good.

So I'm like, Okay.

So hopefully we'll have some massive celebrations in the future here. But I'm really happy and proud of these guys.

Q. Cydney, you have been on this stage, and you have had experience in these moments and come up big. How much did that experience you feel like help you today, and how does this compare to the couple you've hit the last couple of years?

CYDNEY SANDERS: Honestly, I think just being present today was a really big factor for me. I don't think it was like a little bit different from the other moments. But I don't know, it was pretty cool. I have never done that before, especially in the World Series. So that was, like, awesome. I don't know, I have never seen that before. It was pretty exciting, but it may not look like it on TV or whatever, but I was excited on the inside. (Laughter.)

Q. Just walk us through those two at-bats as you're working the count deep. I think both of them came on full-count pitches.

CYDNEY SANDERS: Just really zoning in on the strike zone, not really making it too big. I think I took a really big hack, and I told myself to relax and not try and do too much, just try to pass the bat to my teammates. It ended up coming out like that. But I was just trying to pass the bat to my teammates really.

Q. Sam, for you and Kierston both, what was working for you guys today? Tomorrow, if things go to plan, you will have to play in two games. How are you feeling physically heading into tomorrow?

SAM LANDRY: I think I don't want to speak for KD, but I thought she just looked really good. She came out very confident. It's fun going in behind someone else like that. So I think she kind of fed into what I was able to do today. She definitely set up all the batters that I faced thereafter to how I pitch to them. So physically I feel good. Mentally I feel pretty good. So just ready to go.

Q. Sam, it's been a couple minutes since the end, but going up against Coach Glasco now, what he's meant to your career and how strange it is you have taken very different paths and now you're at the same spot.

SAM LANDRY: Yeah, I don't think a lot of the girls on our team know about my history with him and the girls there. It's such a -- God is so good to have us all here at the same place and to be able to play.

I'm excited, like I said earlier. We'll have a family reunion after the game. We're here to do a job.

So super excited for them, excited for this team.

Q. Off that as well, not just the relationship with Coach Glasco, but the rest of your teammates as well, what's that going to be like facing them and having to pitch to a handful of girls that you were teammates with a year ago.

SAM LANDRY: Yeah, I think I'm a completely different pitcher, person, player than I was when I was at Louisiana. We're still going to work it like any other game, get the scout on them, find some holes and go through it. Just keep it like any other game and not make it too big.

Q. For Isabela and Cydney, 17 of 18 hitters go at least four pitches against Grein with nearly half of them full counts. How much of that was deliberate strategy on y'all's part because of her pitch count the last couple of days or how much of that was happenstance? And, Cydney, you're one of the few to hit two home runs off of her in a career. What were you seeing particularly well tonight?

CYDNEY SANDERS: I honestly didn't even know that it was 3-2, if I'm being honest. I just treated it like it was a 0-0 count. Just trying to see ball, hit ball. Not really thinking about working the count. Just trying to see a ball big and hit it. It wasn't really trying to have a strategy, it was just luck of the draw today. That's all.

ISABELA EMERLING: Yeah, like Cyd said, I was just taking one pitch at a time. Trying to hit a ground ball up the middle. No strategy behind it.

Q. Cydney, you obviously have experience facing NiJaree Canady in a World Series. What do you remember in those at-bats against her?

CYDNEY SANDERS: A lot of spin. That was two years ago. I try to live in the moment. I have to see film again to really go back and watch and see what my bats look like. But just trying to keep it simple, keeping the same mindset, not really trying to do too much.

Q. To both Cydney and Isabela, going against a pitcher like NiJa, obviously high-level, but you guys have faced Pickens, you have faced Kavan, you have faced pitchers at the top of their game right now. How does that play in confidence-wise, or does it? Do you have to wipe it clean and start over against another great arm?

CYDNEY SANDERS: I think just wiping it clean. I think every game is different no matter how you look at it, whether you faced them two years ago, faced them the day before. I think everyone can bring a difference each game. So I think just taking it slow and really just having the mindset and being confident, I think we can go a long way with that.

ISABELA EMERLING: Yeah, I agree with what Cyd said, clean slate, we have to take film on each pitcher we face. It's a new challenge we face, and we're excited.

Q. For any of the players that want to answer, at the end of the game, obviously, you and Oregon came together in a circle. I was just wondering what was said in that moment. And I guess when you see that level of mutual respect by two teams, what do you think that does to help grow the sport and show the camaraderie?

SAM LANDRY: When we come together with teams at the end of the game we're praying, so just thanking God for letting us be in the moment and be in this sport for the day that He brings. He's our fourth man in the fire, and He's there to support a lot of the people, and we're just happy that we're a part of the story that gets to glorify Him.

THE MODERATOR: That'll wrap things up for players.

PATTY GASSO: Is this refreshed? It's always sitting here. Do I drink that? Normally we have bottles. (Laughter) We're on a budget. We're on a budget.

Q. Patty, obviously, I know, like you say, the jubilation of this, but the turning of the page, and you now have to win two tomorrow, and probably would have to win both against NiJa. What's the challenge in that? And I know you don't have a lot of players who have faced her, but you guys are obviously very aware of her as a coaching staff. How does that impact things?

PATTY GASSO: Yeah, JT's got a lot of work to get going on. I do -- to someone's point, we talked about the amount of elite pitchers that we have faced and had some success with, and that's what we're going to live off of.

We're going to have to make a few adjustments for sure, but, I mean, we're fighting. We're fighting for our lives now, and that is what it's going to look like. It's going to be a fight on our side to say we will not surrender for anyone or anything. So that's how we're going to approach it.

Q. Patty, your pitching, how is it set up for the next two games? You'll be playing two in a row to get to where you want to get. They didn't really have heavy workloads.

PATTY GASSO: I like where we're at. I'm not sure how we're piecing it together, but everybody is going to empty their tanks, without question.

Q. To ask you about Cyd, who seems to just have a lot of big moments here in Oklahoma City. What do you attribute that to, just her ability to have these big moments? And how needed was that today for this offense?

PATTY GASSO: Very needed for this offense. And Cyd is exactly what you just saw. Very chill, very easygoing. Does not get affected by much of anything.

Just getting her swing on that -- Grein is tough. She is tough. And definitely facing her will help us tomorrow. But Cyd is very unassuming. Doesn't get all caught up in the thought process. She just waits for her moment.

Q. You said that yesterday after the game you stood in front of your team and said that you've been waiting for this moment to see how they respond. I know you guys won, but how they respond with the way they warmed up, with the way they were in the dugout for seven innings, all of it?

PATTY GASSO: Okay. The warmup was better for sure. Seven innings, they get distracted. They just look around a little bit. They talk some, but they just kind of become spectators sometimes. And I don't need them to be like the little kids in the 10-and-under teams in the dugout, but I do need them paying attention. And they are. They just sometimes don't make a lot of noise. Every once in a while they'll create something.

But they were definitely more focused and ready today. They learned a valuable lesson. And that's the one thing that we're doing this whole season, learning so many valuable lessons to help this team go into next year so much better than when we started.

Still, I mean, I'm on an amazing ride. I don't know how they feel. They don't share a lot. They just walk off the field and walk in the locker room like, What are we having for dinner?

I'm like, Okay. I want to celebrate with somebody, but...

(Laughter.) It's swaggy, but it's bizarre at the same time. Trying to forget it out.

Q. Coach Gasso, as somebody who has brought a number of programs here, different teams-wise, what's it like seeing what Texas Tech has done, their first year, and what they have been able to do off to a 2-0 start here, and Ole Miss also making their first appearance here as well?

PATTY GASSO: Yeah, it's cool to see new faces because that brings in more fans and fan bases. I've known Coach Glasco for quite a long time. And I have watched his career move around some, but he's an amazing coach. He really is. Some of the stuff he pulls out of his hat is pretty epic. He does it the right way. I've really enjoyed going up against him because you know you're going to have a battle.

Ole Miss, same thing. I was also a member of the Big 12 for 30 years. To see the Big 12 team get in here that's a new name is really, really cool for the Big 12 as well. So, Ole Miss just got on that hot run, and sometimes it's fun to follow those underdogs or Ole Miss that way.

The experience, when you have a team that comes to the World Series -- and that's why I'm really excited for Missy, because she really worked hard to try to get -- her standard and my standard are very similar. So to finally get her team here, I was just watching, I was a fan from afar, really rooting for them, but it's going to edify and move her program to the next level, and I'm excited for her.

Q. Patty, what's more impressive, winning four straight World Series or nine straight elimination games in the World Series?

PATTY GASSO: Say that one more time.

Q. Winning four straight like you have done or nine straight elimination games in the World Series?

PATTY GASSO: Oh. (Laughter) Oh. Oh. I don't know. That's impressive. Nine is pretty dang impressive. That means you're a team that when -- that's character. That is we're not going to quit, so I love, love, love that.

It's also nice raising a trophy and taking an easier route. But I do, I do respect the fact that our team fights their tail off until the end.

Q. How do you mentally prepare Sam for a moment like tomorrow when she's going up against a coach that she played for for a handful of years?

PATTY GASSO: I've got to work on that. That's a good question. I really hope that she -- she's so different. She's quite different. She's quite a different pitcher than she was and she really, really showcased -- she threw really well tonight. Really well.

I hope that will carry over for her and just really have tunnel vision and blinders on and just not worry so much on that side but more about her girls on her side.

Q. Patty, I'm sure you don't relish eliminating Missy in Oregon the last two seasons at all. You mentioned wanting to see her success. She's also 30 days from a contract year. How important is it for you to see her, and all your former assistants, but her specifically, getting an investment from Oregon --

PATTY GASSO: Thank you for asking that question, yes. If you aren't investing in Melyssa Lombardi, then you're not paying attention. Not only is she a great coach and very organized and a hustling, hustling staff that recruits very well, but she's an extreme professional and does it the right way, treats her players the right way, expects hard work on the field, but also just -- I don't know. Her players walking through the line were very grateful for the game that we had, wished us luck.

She just does it the right way. She is turning girls into women. And that's what we've done at OU. That's what she was when she came to OU, was a girl that turned into a woman, and now she's doing the same thing.

She's one of the best out there. There's no question about that.

THE MODERATOR: That'll wrap things up for Oklahoma.