The Owls Baseball team really is as good as their (10-2) record. On Monday Feb. 26, in front of nearly 4,000 fans braving lingering thunderstorms, FAU came within one run of tying the Major League Baseball World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, before losing 3-2 in a seven-inning exhibition game.

FAU came close to pushing the game into extra innings when Robbie Widlansky hit a solo home run and Daniel Cook and Travis Ozga had extra base hits. The Owls came into the seventh inning trailing 3-0 but narrowed the gap with the huge hits.

St. Louis Cardinals Manger Tony LaRussa felt FAU out hit his big-league Cardinals ballclub. The Owls had five hits in the game, with the Cardinals getting four hits. “FAU hit the ball better than we did, but they just hit it to the big part of the park,” LaRussa said about the Owls hitting several long balls to center field that were caught for outs.

St. Louis scored in the first inning with a double, single and a leadoff walk, and two more leadoff walks scored the second and third runs. FAU did strike out seven members of the St. Louis Cardinals, with strong pitching by five different FAU pitchers.

FAU next hosts Villanova at 7p.m. on Friday night. And the Owls face Boston College this weekend, with games on Saturday at 7p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.