CAROL STREAM, Ill. — If there was one thing the Saint Mary's University and Aurora baseball teams learned Monday afternoon, it's that there's nothing easy about holding on to a two-run lead.
 
The Cardinals and Spartans both built two-run leads twice — SMU 2-0 and 4-2, and AU 6-4 and 8-6 — but neither could make it hold up, and their scheduled nine-inning contest would need extra innings to decide a winner.
 
Unfortunately, in the 10th, Aurora found a lead it could hold on to, erupting for five runs — including a two-run, inside-the-park home run — as the Spartans dealt the Cardinals a 13-9 nonconference setback at Lee Pfund Stadium.
 
It took an inning for the Cardinals' bats to heat up, but they were sizzling in their second plate appearance, stringing back-to-back-to-back hits together — including an RBI double by Daniel Marxen (Maple Grove, Minn.) — to plate the game's first run, and scored another on a Ben Coons' (Kimberly, Wis.) one-out groundout in taking an early 2-0 lead.
 
Aurora answered in the top of the fourth, tagging Cardinal starter Addison Hochevar (Lake Geneva, Wis.) for a pair of runs on three hits to knot the game at 2-2.
 
Marxen put the Cardinals back in front, delivering his second extra-base hit of the day — this one of a lead-off home run to left in the bottom of the fourth — and Riley Bauman (Stratford, Wis.) added a two-out, run-scoring single in the fifth, extending the Cardinal advantage to 4-2.
 
The lead did not last long, however, as Aurora erupted for four runs in the top of the sixth flip the two-run advantage in its favor.
 
Aurora's Dominic Curcio opened the frame by inducing a walk off Cardinal reliever Eric Charest (Blaine, Minn.), and Nicol Bermeo promptly launched Charest's next offering over the left-field fence to pull the Spartans even, 4-4.
 
Two more singles chased Charest, and, after Jett Wedekind flew out to right, Derek Angelo laced a Mason Windschitl (Excelsior, Minn.) pitch to right, giving the Spartans their first lead of the game. Aurora added another run on a sacrifice fly to left, leaving the Cardinals staring at a two-run deficit with three at-bats remaining.
 
With one swing of the bat, the Cardinals were back on level ground, as Trevon VanEgtern (La Crosse, Wis.) launched Saint Mary's second home run of the day — a towering two-run shot in the bottom of the seventh — pulling SMU even 6-6.
 
Aurora parlayed two walks and three hits into yet another two-run inning — this one in the top of the ninth — to regain the advantage, 8-6.
 
True to the day, that two-run cushion did not last, as the Cardinals got a two-out, two-run double from Mason Coyle (Madison, Wis.) in the bottom half of the ninth to knot the game at 8-8 — and send the contest into extra innings.
 
Fueled by a two-run, ground-rule double off the bat of Jacob Ambuel and a two-run, inside-the-park home run by Justin Sartori, the Spartans erupted for five runs in the top of the 10th — and the five-run deficit proved to be too much for the Cardinals, who could only scratch across one run in the bottom of the inning.
 
Coyle finished 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs and a run scored to lead the Saint Mary's offensive attack, while VanEgtern, Marxen, Riley Bauman, and Cameron Weber (Holmen, Wis.) all chipped in a pair of hits.
 
The Cardinals (3-6 overall) are right back in action Monday evening, squaring off against Wheaton (Ill.) in a nine-inning nonconference affair at Lee Pfund Stadium.
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