Updated: May 18, 2011 10:02PM

Marian Catholic stayed in the hunt for the East Suburban Catholic Conference softball championship with a strong defensive effort in a 4-2 victory Wednesday over Providence in New Lenox.

The Spartans (26-5, 15-1) remained one game ahead of Marist with one final doubleheader coming up Saturday vs. St. Viator.

Shortstop Bri Clark and second baseman Shawna Sadler were outstanding in the middle of the diamond for Marian. The pair turned a dazzling double play in the seventh inning that helped pitcher Becca Gray get out of a potential jam.

With Maddie Rosa on with a walk, Lacey Hill smoked a hard grounder that appeared heading for center field. Sadler cut the ball off and in one motion flipped the ball to Clark, who fired on to first for the double play.

“It still amazes me the plays that they make in the middle,’’ Marian coach Kerri Evans said. “The chemistry between them is amazing. The rest of the team draws energy from them.’’

“We are best friends and we communicate well,’’ Clark said. “I feed off her and she feeds off me.’’

The Spartans jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Becca Stanton stroked a single to center that brought in Alex Nickel (2-for-3). Kelly Foley followed with a perfect bunt that brought in Rachel Glenn.

The lead was stretched to 4-0 in the third when Clark brought in Jenny LaBella with an RBI double. Clark (2-for-4) came around to score on an error.

That was all the scoring for Marian as Providence pitcher Amanda Wilson, a sophomore, shut down the Spartans offense the rest of the way.

“We gave them a couple of runs early on and that’s when we start to spiral out of control,’’ Providence coach Jay Biesterfeld said. “We did a nice job of rebounding from that today.’’

The Celtics (14-17-1, 9-9) scored their only runs in the third. Wilson brought Ilana Primack in with a single and Tara Airola had a sacrifice fly to score Ellie Bartosz.

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.