I try to keep things positive, but sometimes it's hard when it comes to the Atlanta Braves

Troy baseball's Mason Rogers.

I try to keep things positive, but sometimes it’s hard.

The Atlanta Braves played their first spring training game on Friday and lost to their NL East division rival, the New York Mets, 6-2, at Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

On Saturday, Atlanta suffered a 6-1 loss to the defending World Champions, the Houston Astros, at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach, Fla.

On Sunday, the Braves suffered a 9-3 defeat at the hands of another NL East rival, the Washington Nationals, in West Palm Beach.

Again, I try to keep things positive, but I sure do hope that Atlanta’s start to spring training is no indication as to how the rest of their year is going to go.

I’m typing this column up on Monday afternoon, and the CBS Sports app on my phone tells me that the Braves are actually leading the Nationals, 2-0, in the bottom of the seventh. Hopefully, they will not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory before I close this thing out.

While the Braves haven’t gotten off to a hot start, the same cannot be said for Alabama and Auburn’s baseball teams, who are both undefeated as of Monday afternoon.

During the past week, Auburn improved to 8-0 overall with one-run wins over Georgia State and Troy and a three-game sweep against Bryant University of Rhode Island.

During that same time, Alabama improved to 7-0 with a win over Middle Tennessee and a three-game sweep against Washington State.

One thing that can be said for sure is that if both of these teams remain undefeated, it won’t remain that way forever, as they are on a collision course that will come to a head on March 27 when they meet in the Max Capital City Classic in Montgomery.

I’ve never been to watch one of these “Capital City Classic” games, but I’ve always wanted to go. Last year’s Classic was the eighth year that this game has been played at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery, and I’ve heard that tickets for this game are hard to come by. Nearly 8,000 people attending the Classic last year.

Someone asked me earlier this week about how Troy University’s baseball team was doing. As of Monday, they were 4-4 overall with one of their losses coming against Auburn and the three losses coming against Florida State. To Troy’s credit, the Trojans hung in there with Auburn, losing by just one run Wednesday of last week at Plainsman Park in Auburn.

Taking a close look at Troy’s team roster, most of their players are from Alabama and the only one from a town close to Evergreen is senior outfielder Mason Rogers, who grew up in Linden. Rogers played his high school ball at Demopolis High School before playing one season at Lurleen B. Wallace Community College in Andalusia.

Before I forget to mention it, basketball will wrap up this week at Hillcrest, hopefully with another state title, and then the Jags will move into their baseball season. Presuming that they win the basketball state championship, we’ll have to see if they can pull off the hat trick by winning it all in baseball too.