SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Senior pitcher Kiara Hurley was keeping the North Carolina Central University softball team within striking distance before Sunday's season opener was called in the sixth inning due to rain, providing host USC Upstate with the 3-0 victory.
 
Hurley (0-1) tossed 5 1/3 innings and limited a high-powered Spartans offense to just three runs on eight hits and one walk in her complete-game performance.
 
Upstate (3-0) remained undefeated on the strength of its first shutout of the season.
 
Senior starting pitcher Mallie Brown (2-0) earned the win after hurling the first five scoreless innings with 11 strikeouts while freshman reliever Addison Yoder completed the shutout with a scoreless sixth inning that featured two K's.
 
NCCU had its best chance of scoring in the sixth. Junior Madison Mifsud led off with a single and stole second before senior Joirea Dumas and sophomore Diamond Porter both drew walks to load the bases. However, Yoder recorded Upstate's 13th strikeout of the contest to keep the Eagles off the board.
 
Dumas and Porter both reached base safely twice. Dumas had NCCU's first hit with a single in the second and Porter tallied the only extra-base hit for the Eagles with a double to right field in the fifth.
 
Senior K'Lea Parks the only other hit for the maroon and gray.
 
Sophomore Payton Darnell drove in all three Spartan runs as she ripped an RBI-double in the third and smashed a two-run homer in the fifth.
 
NC Central is next scheduled to play four games at the Campbell University Invitational in Buies Creek, North Carolina, on Saturday-Sunday, Feb. 20-21.