Gina Carbonatto was hired as the head coach of Santa Clara softball in June, 2019.
Carbonatto led the Broncos to their first ever West Coast Conference Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance in 2025 as the team set a single season program record in overall wins (32) and WCC victories (11). The team won all five WCC series during the season for the first time.
On April 12, 2025 she became the winningest coach in school history earning her 114th career victory against her alma mater, Pacific, surpassing Marcy Crouch who compiled a 113-166 record from 2000-04. Carbonatto's career record stands at 122-137 through six seasons.
Carbonatto was named 2025 WCC Coach of the Year to lead a Bronco sweep of the five major conference awards - Player of the Year (Cairah Curran), Defensive Player of the Year (Taryn Clements), Pitcher of the Year (Cari Ferguson), and Freshman of the Year (Cari Ferguson). They also set a program record with eight All-WCC selections while seven garnered WCC All-Academic accolades.
In her fifth season at the helm in 2024, Carbonatto led the program to a then record-tying 30 wins. Seven players were picked to the All-WCC squad including Hazyl Gray who was named WCC Player of the Year and Cairah Curran who was named WCC Defensive Player of the Year. The seven honorees were the most in Santa Clara history, surpassing the six from 2023 and in 2015. The Broncos finished with nine WCC wins, the most in school history and was one win away in the final regular season series from winning the conference crown. Seven Broncos were also named WCC All-Academic.
In 2023, SCU won 23 games, coming off a 21 win campaign the year prior to post the program's first back-to-back 20-win season since 2005 and 2006. The 23 win total was the most since 2006. Ashley Trierweiler was named second-team All-American by D1Softball and third-team NFCA All-American becoming the first Bronco player ever to be named All-American by them after finishing second nationally among Division I players in batting average at .486 and third with an .584 on-base percentage. Trierweiler and Hazyl Gray were named to the NFCA All-Region team becoming just the second and third Bronco players ever to garner the honor. Additionally, seven Broncos were named West Coast Conference All-Academic.
During 2022, five Broncos were named All-West Coast Conference while eight earned conference All-Academic honors. Over the summer, Carbonatto served as an assistant coach of Great Britain's Under-22 Women's Team, a role she's held since 2018, that competed in the European Under-22 Women's Fastpitch Championship in Kunovice, Czech Republic.
Her first season on the Mission Campus was during the 2020 shortened season where the Broncos won eight games. She helped the team hit .285 with a .355 on-base percentage while 10 Broncos garnered WCC All-Academic recognition.
In another abbreviated season in 2021 impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Broncos once again won eight games including a 4-0 shutout of Stanford. A trio of Broncos were named All-WCC including Trierweiler who was named to the first team and named Defensive Player of the Year. Additionally, five student-athletes earned WCC All-Academic honors.
Before joining the Broncos, Carbonatto spent three years at UC Davis. While there, Carbonatto helped the team receive 18 All-Big West honors. She also helped pitcher Brooke Yanez nab back-to-back All-Region selections (2018-19) and a 2019 Second Team Softball America All-American nod.
Davis won 89 games during Carbonatto’s tenure, improving each season, including a 39 win season.
Prior to her time with the Aggies, Carbonatto spent two years with Pacific as the top assistant and the WCC bestowed 10 all-conference awards to Tigers players.
Her first stint with Pacific came as a volunteer assistant in 2011 and 2012 where she worked with Tiger hitters and outfielders and helped the team hit a program-high .285. During the 2011 season, Pacific earned its first Big West Conference championship and posted a 71-39 record in her two years.
Before returning to her alma mater in '11, she joined the Washington Huskies as a member of its coaching staff. In 2008, she was the volunteer assistant before the program selected her as one of its full-time assistants the following season.
In her first season in Seattle, Washington advanced to the Regionals and the following year saw the Huskies win 51 games and finish the year as the No. 1 team in the nation by defeating Florida at the Women's College World Series and claiming its first national title.
After the Huskies won a Pac-10 championship in 2010, Carbonatto returned to her alma mater to pursue a graduate degree three years after capping one of the most successful individual careers in program history.
During the 2004 season, her first as a Tiger, the Big West's Freshman Field Player of the Year also earned the first of four consecutive All-Big West first team selections. That year also marked the first of three occasions that the NFCA selected her as an All-American ('06, '07).
In the following seasons, the three-time team MVP ('04, '06, 07) and Most Inspirational Player recipient ('04, '05, '07) earned additional conference awards when the Big West named Carbonatto as its Player of the Year in 2006 and Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2007.
The two-time Academic All-Region selection ('06, '07) ended her career as the league's all-time leader in runs (178) and batting average (.401) -- a percentage that shattered Pacific's previous record of .333. By doing so, Carbonatto became the first Tiger to end her career with an average of .400 or above.
Due to her athletic and academic excellence as a student-athlete, her jersey is one of only two numbers retired by the program.
Once her undergraduate career concluded, Carbonatto played professionally as a member of the New England Riptide of National Pro Fastpitch League for two seasons. In 2007, she posted the team's third-highest batting average (.295); the Lake Stevens, Wash. native ended her second season as a pro with the team's second-highest runs (21), walks (18), stolen bases (7) and doubles totals (7).
Carbonatto, a six-time Dean's List honoree, graduated cum laude from Pacific in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in sport sciences. Six years later, she earned a master's in sport pedagogy.
She resides in Santa Clara, with her wife, Lorna Carbonatto, and daughter, Lochlan.
