In her years at Lake Stevens High School, Gina Carbonatto distinguished herself as an outstanding softball player.
Since arriving at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., Carbonatto has done nothing to change that prevailing opinion.
Carbonatto, who was an All-Western Conference selection in each of her four varsity seasons at Lake Stevens as a shortstop and second baseman, has continued to rake in the accolades at Pacific. In a stellar 2006 season, Carbonatto was picked to the All-America second-team, was the Big West Conference Co-Field Player of the Year, and was a first-team All-West Region selection.
In addition, she was named the Stockton Hall of Fame’s Female Athlete of the Year.
All of which is why Carbonatto is The Herald’s 2006 Woman of The Year in Sports.
Her numbers make the case for the those kinds of honors.
Carbonatto, who is a sports medicine major at Pacific and hopes to have a career as a strength and conditioning coach, batted .403 in 2006, her junior season, the league’s third-best mark. She also batted a remarkable .382 against teams bound for the NCAA tournament.
She collected 64 hits for the season to lead the league for the third consecutive year, and her career total reached 202, putting her in a tie for the fifth-best mark in the program’s history with still one season yet to play. Carbonatto also led the league in stolen bases, swiping 18 bases out of 22 attempts.
Carbonatto scored 36 runs in 2006, ranking her third in the conference, and giving her 120 runs for her career, a total that is eighth all-time in the Big West.
As good as she was offensively, Carbonatto was just as solid in the field. Pacific’s starting center fielder, she was nearly perfect in 50 starts in 2006, committing just one error in the field while totaling six outfield assists.
Her solid play helped Pacific to the sixth-best fielding percentage in the NCAA for the season.
According to her coach, Brian Kolze, Carbonatto is “obviously one of the finest center fielders in the country. Gina is one of the premier players in the Big West (Conference), and we are really looking for big things out of her in her senior year here at Pacific.”
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