CHARLESTON, S.C. – The College of Charleston softball team made history Friday night by winning its fifth straight game to open a season for the first time in program history, a 5-1 victory over Eastern Kentucky that concluded the first day of the Wyndham Garden Cougar Classic at Patriots Point.

The Cougars rode the strong pitching of Sam Martin and Brittany Violette and another big day at the plate for freshman Taylor Belfiore to eclipse the previous mark for consecutive wins to start a season of four set in 2004 and matched this year.

Martin allowed only three hits and one unearned run while striking out four in her five innings of work to pick up her first win of the season. Violette continued her strong start by tossing two innings of shutout ball, and she has surrendered only six hits and one run over 11.2 innings so far this year.

The Cougars scored a pair of runs in the first on singles by Taylor DuPree and Jordin Jones and a key two-out error that brought both of them home. After the Colonels (0-2) scored their lone run of the game in the second, CofC exploded for three in the third, including a tremendous blast to left by Belfiore for the first home run of her college career.

Belfiore, the reigning Colonial Athletic Association Rookie of the Week, had two hits on the night and is 11-for-16 (.688) with seven RBI through five games. Katie Padilla capped the decisive frame with a run-scoring double to left center to give the Cougars a four-run cushion.

Padilla and Jones joined Belfiore with two of CofC's 10 hits, and Jones made a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch in right to end a potential Eastern Kentucky threat in the fourth.

The Cougars continue tournament play with Saturday contests against Monmouth at 1:30 and Lipscomb at 8.