TEMPE, Ariz. — The Kentucky softball team’s 2013 season came to a close on Sunday as the Wildcats fell to Arizona State. UK, who dropped game one on Saturday, was ousted in the best-of-three series.The Wildcats battled until the end vs. ASU but just couldn’t find the timely hits with runners on base to mount a third comeback in the game. Kentucky answered with a run each time ASU went ahead, but couldn’t muster one final rally as fifth-seeded Arizona State won the super regional title in front of their home fans.”I think we put up a good fight and that’s all you can do,” senior Kara Dill said. “ASU is a very good team and I think looking back, it just wasn’t in the cards for us. We didn’t get the big hits when we had runners on. That’s all you can do: You put up the best fight you can and coming from behind is difficult but until that scoreboard says no outs you still have a chance.”That’s exactly what the Cats did all season. They fought until the very last out of the game and showed the toughness that head coach Rachel Lawson praised since day one.Kentucky’s 2013 season was one for the ages and the Cats broke several school records along the way. Lawson became the program’s all-time winningest coach, the team set the wins record for a single season, freshman pitcher Kelsey Nunley surpassed the single-season wins mark and the Wildcats hosted their first NCAA Regional in their brand-new venue, just to name a few.”Overall we had a very good season,” Lawson said. “We have been very good, this is our fifth straight postseason and we have been to two super regionals. With that said, in order to get to the World Series your team usually has to figure out how to host and we did that from the beginning of the year on. I think that was a big step for our program and hopefully it will pay off in the future.”Dill will leave a mark on UK softball as she exits the program. She was an all-league performer in 2012 and led the Wildcats in hitting twice.  She ends her career fifth all-time with a .330 average, sixth in stolen bases with 57, seventh with 119 runs, eighth with 201 hits and tied for eighth with nine triples.It was a difficult season for Dill, who broke her hand back in March in a series against LSU. Her recovery timetable would allow her to return to the field only if UK were to make the postseason. She asked one thing of her team and they came through for her by punching a ticket into the NCAA Regional.”Obviously it’s not the way anyone wants their year to go but the team did a really good job and I told them, ‘I need you to get me to postseason, I need to have a chance to play again.’ They did that and I couldn’t ask anymore of them. It is special we are one of the top-16 teams right now. You would like to be the top eight but to get to this point I think it was a great ending.”The Wildcats will also say farewell to senior Alice O’Brien, who set the single season sacrifice fly record with five in 2013.It was a memorable year for UK softball and sets the stage a bright future. Just to put in perspective, Kentucky had five freshmen in the starting lineup against ASU this weekend, including sophomore catcher Griffin Joiner.The Wildcats have a lot of youth to go with a core group of upperclassmen for next season. The experience UK will gain from hosting its first-ever regional and traveling to Tempe, Ariz., and taking the high-powered Sun Devils to the limit says a lot for a young team.”If you would have said at the beginning of the year that we would have made it all the way to supers against ASU with five freshmen starting I would have said that’s a tall order, but they responded,” Lawson said. “I do feel like we have a solid foundation but we are going to have to figure out how to replace Kara Dill and we are going to have to figure out how to do better offensively.”As for the freshmen, third baseman Nikki Sagermann likes where the program is headed and is ready to get back to work and hopefully play late in the postseason again this time next year.”This experience has been amazing,” Sagermann said. “It was pretty special for us freshmen because it’s just going to prepare us even more for the future because we plan on being back here.”