TEMPE, Ariz. — Game one of the Tempe Super Regional didn’t go in Kentucky’s favor, but the Wildcats showed plenty of signs of life.The Sun Devils topped the Cats 5-4 on Saturday evening to take a 1-0 lead in the super regional final. The winner of the three-game set will earn a trip to the 2013 Women’s College World Series.ASU looked dominant early as junior pitcher Dallas Escobedo was dealing and the Sun Devils got on the board with a three-run shot be Cheyenne Coyle. The Wildcats couldn’t help but be reminded of their 8-1 loss to ASU back on February 9 when Arizona State extended their lead to 5-1 in the bottom of the fifth.However, the Wildcats never backed down. Freshman Christian Stokes got the Cats on the board in the top of the fifth with a solo shot to dead center to cut ASU’s lead to 3-1. After the Sun Devils extended their lead to four, junior Lauren Cumbess began UK’s sixth with a solo shot to left field. Two batters later, O’Brien connected for her eighth home run on the year and Stokes would follow later in the inning with her second home run off Escobedo. The Wildcats hit four solo shots off ASU’s junior ace and even made head coach Clint Meyers make a pitching change going into the top of the seventh.UK seemed to have made some adjustments since the last time they had faced her and even tinkered with their approach during the game.”My first at-bat wasn’t too good so I knew I had to make and adjustment and I knew she was coming with a rise ball,” Stokes said. “She had a really good jump on her rise ball and I just tried to look for something low that I could drive.”Escobedo hadn’t given up a single run in 31 innings coming into Saturday and the Wildcats roughed her up to the tune of four runs and seven hits in six innings of work. The fact that Kentucky chased Escobedo and made ASU make a pitching change is a feat on its own.”I thought our team did a nice job off of (Escobedo),” head coach Rachel Lawson said. “That’s the best hitting performance we have had in a little while so I thought we did a nice job squaring up on some of her pitches. She has a couple different heights that she uses and luckily we didn’t fish too often at the super-high ones. I thought we did a nice job putting the barrel on it and being on time for it.”The game could have very easily gotten out of hand. The sold out stadium with 2,001 fans in attendance was rocking when ASU took a commanding 5-1 advantage. Instead of putting their heads down and playing scared, the Wildcats stuck together and gave Arizona State all they could handle.In the top of the seventh, the Sun Devils brought in junior Mackenzie Popescue for the save. After recording the first two outs in the frame, sophomore Griffin Joiner drew a walk to bring Cumbess to the plate as the potential go-ahead run”I don’t think it’s over until it’s over,” Stokes said. “We just kind of ran out of time in the end but we were on (Escobedo) pretty good.”Maybe the Cats ran out of time tonight but they sure showed the Sun Devils they are in it to win it. Kentucky will come back Sunday at 5 p.m. ET with a mindset of winning two ballgames and there is no doubt in the Cats’ minds that they can take games two and three.”Our confidence level is always the same; that’s one of the products of being in the SEC or Pac-12,” Lawson said. “Every game is a new game and you know you can go out and get beat one day but you are a good enough team to come back the next day. That’s the one thing that these power conferences prepare you for because every time you wake up you know you have to play an outstanding team. While ASU is certainly incredible, we have been through this before. I think more than anything we are steady and our confidence usually remains the same.”