LOS ANGELES - A double with two outs in the bottom of the seventh spelled heartbreak for the Boilermaker softball team as it turned a 1-0 lead into a 2-1 loss to San Diego State.
Despite the loss, the game was full of highlights including a nine-strikeout effort by junior Lilly Fecho and the first collegiate home run for rookie Kaylah Hampton.
Reliever Erica Romero (2-1) struck out five and earned the victory in four innings of work, after taking over for Andi Smith, who issued five walks in the first three innings. Fecho struck out nine and allowed just four hits in the complete-game effort for Purdue.
Hampton's sixth-inning home run, which bounced off the inside of the right field foul pole, accounted for the Boilermakers' lone hit. Senior Alyssa Koorsen drew two of the team's five walks in the contest.
The Boilermakers threatened early as senior Ashley Burkhardt drew a two-out walk and advanced to third on a steal and wild pitch in the first inning. A foul out kept her from scoring.
After forcing SDSU to strand two runners in the bottom of the first, the Boilers loaded the bases on a trio of walks to sophomore Kristen Hoppman, Koorsen, and junior Lexi Valone, but a strikeout kept the game scoreless.
Hampton was hit by a pitch with two outs in the third, but the Boilers could not bring her around.
The Boilermaker defense ended a potential SDSU threat in the sixth as Hoppman wrangled a fly ball off the right field wall and lasered it in to Andrew at second base to erase the hit.
Hampton put Purdue on top with the one-out homer in the sixth.
San Diego State put two aboard with a walk and single in the seventh. Fecho issued two strikeouts and had the Aztecs down to their final strike when the walk-off double to left ended the shutout and the game.
The Boilermakers (0-3) wrap up day two of the So Cal Collegiate Challenge with a 9 p.m. ET contest against No. 6 UCLA. Live stats will be available at purduesports.com.