TUSCALOOSA -- Alabama brought out the brooms Sunday afternoon against North Dakota.

The Crimson Tide baseball team picked up its third win of the weekend with a 7-1 victory over the Fighting Hawks -- on only for hits -- at Sewell-Thomas Stadium to advance to 6-1 on the young 2016 season.

“6-1’s a good start,” head coach Mitch Gaspard said after the game. “More than just the record, I think with the way we play, the fact that we’ve had nice crowds, I think there’s some real energy both about the baseball team and the new stadium, so that’s been real encouraging for our program.

“We’ve seen a lot of really good qualities in seven games from our team, and I think we felt like we had a deep pitching staff and that appears to be the case right now. And offensively, we’ve done some good things. But I think the No. 1 thing is this team’s very competitive.”

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The Fighting Hawks opened the game with a run in the bottom of the second inning after Zach Heaser reached base on an error and Luis Calvo crossed home plate. But that was all North Dakota could muster Sunday.

Alabama answered with a three-run third inning that started with a Keith Holcombe triple to left field to score Connor Short and Chance Vincent. Chandler Taylor followed that up with an RBI single to bring Holcombe home.

“As soon as I saw (the left fielder’s) back turn, I was most definitely thinking three,” Holcombe said of his third inning triple against North Dakota. “I thought Coach was gonna send me four, but he held me up at the end.

“... This has been a great experience for me, but I’m just going out there competing, doing whatever I can to help out the team just like all the other guys on this team. We just try to win the best way and play to our best ability.”

The Tide added a bounty of insurance in the top of the eighth with four runs. Holcombe was hit by a pitch, stole second, advanced to third after a Cobie Vance pop-up and slid under the tag at home on a wild pitch to make it a 4-1 game.

Thanks to a second consecutive passed ball, Taylor easily tacked on a fifth run. An error at shortstop allowed Georgie Salem to reach first and earn an RBI on a Cody Henry score, and a sacrifice fly by Short brought Salem home.

RHP Nick Eicholtz started the game on the mound for Alabama but only pitched three innings before an early exit. Gaspard provided an explanation for Eicholtz’s short outing after the game.

“Nick, during the third inning, had a little forearm strain,” Gaspard said. “It had tightened up on him pretty good after the inning so we got (Dylan Duarte) going and had to get him out of there. We’ll know more in the morning. It looks like it’s in the muscle, but it certainly could be something that he could be out for a couple weeks with a strain.”

Gaspard elected to use a committee of pitchers to close out the game and the win after that, utilizing Duarte, Kyle Cameron, Matt Foster and Thomas Burrows. The UA bullpen pitched six scoreless innings with Duarte earning the win.

Alabama will next travel to face the Troy Trojans on Tuesday, March 1, for a 6 p.m. CT first pitch.

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Contact Charlie Potter by 247Sports' personal messaging system or on Twitter at @Charlie_Potter.