Elijah Smith began as an assistant coach with Academy of Art baseball in August 2021 after serving as a volunteer since March 2021.
It was a 2023 Academy of Art baseball season that featured career achievements, multiple Pacific West Conference recognitions, the program's second no-hitter, and a celebration of its senior class as the Urban Knights worked hard every day. Three different ART U student-athletes earned
PacWest weekly honors including Brian Kraft who was also named
NCBWA National and
Regional Pitcher of the Week after tossing a no-hitter versus Concordia on
Apr. 1. Cannon
Secrist also made history by becoming the program's
new career strikeouts leader, ending with 202 strikeouts in 201.0 total innings. He would join fellow senior
Hayato Niki on the
All-PacWest Third Team alongside Gabe Henderson on the Second Team at the season's end while Landon Levine secured a place on the
ABCA West Region All-Defensive Team. Additionally, a grand total of 12 Knights were honored on the
Academic All-PacWest Team and three were named
CSC Academic All-District Team.
Back to a full schedule for the first time in nearly two full calendar years, the 2022 ART U campaign saw the Urban Knights earn a trio of victories over ranked opponents in addition to setting numerous records along the way. Following a win hosting No. 23 Concordia on
Feb. 26 that saw Collin
Carriger break the program's single-game strikeouts record (16), Academy of Art defeated its highest ranked opponent to date in No. 3 Point Loma twice on back-to-back days (
Apr. 8 and
Apr. 9). While ART U single-season program records were broken by Charles Morgan (eight home runs) and Cannon
Secrist (82 strikeouts), the trio Dominic
Ruggiero, Vincent
Lontz, and
Carriger collected All-PacWest Team honors. It was a career-best batting average for
Ruggiero at .351 (47-for-134) in 35 games played, which was not only the highest average on ART U and sixth-best in the
PacWest (third-best single-season average in ART U history with a minimum of 100 at-bats).
Carriger tallied another career-best with a total of 86 strikeouts, fifth-most in the
PacWest, while
Lontz ended his ART U career with a career-best .314 (54-for-172) in 49 games played this season.
Ruggiero would even take it a step further, as he was named to the
Division II Conference Commissioners Association All-West Region Second Team for the first time in his career. Additionally, baseball was represented by nine
2021-22 Academic All-PacWest recipients.
Highlighting Smith's first campaign as volunteer was ART U's first ever trip to the postseason, as the Urban Knights finished a single game ahead of Fresno Pacific to claim the
PacWest NorCal pod title and the subsequent spot at the
PacWest AQ Pod Series. Even in the shortened COVID-19 year, ART U claimed 16 victories, winning three series on the year while splitting one. The 13-11 record in
PacWest play marked the first time in program history that the Knights finished conference play above .500. For the first time this season an Urban Knight was named the
NCBWA West Region Pitcher of the Week, with both Matthew Sanchez (
Mar. 10) and Collin
Carriger (
May 3) earned the honor after also being named the
PacWest Pitcher of the Week (Sanchez–
Mar. 8; Carriger–
May 3). Playing a major role in a season-opening series win over Fresno Pacific in which he delivered seven hits in his first 10 at-bats, Adam
Inouye was named the
PacWest Player of the Week on
Mar. 8. By the end of the campaign, four Urban Knights
would earn All-PacWest honors, with Ty Conrad and Jayson Summers named to the
All-PacWest Second Team while Dominic
Ruggiero and Andrew
Shebloski found spots on the
All-PacWest Third Team. The accolades kept rolling in for Conrad in the postseason, earning selections to each of the
2021 ABCA/Rawlings NCAA DII West All-Region Second Team,
2021 D2CCA All-Region Second Team, and
2021 CoSIDA Academic All-District Team. Additionally, baseball was represented by 10
2020-21 Academic All-PacWest recipients.
In his two years competing for Academy of Art baseball, Smith finished his collegiate career as the program’s top infielder in several statistical categories in 2019. He ranks first in career triples (11) as well as second in both career batting average (.310) and career slugging percentage (.455). Additionally, Smith is fourth in career runs scored (63), fifth in doubles (22), sixth in on-base percentage (.357), eighth in runs batted in (42), and 10th in stolen bases (19).
In a memorable debut 2018 campaign, Smith set the program single-season record with seven triples while adding the fourth-most runs scored (34) all en route to being named
All-PacWest Third Team. The following year, Smith earned
NCBWA All-Region Honorable Mention and
All-PacWest Second Team after breaking ART U single-season records with a .538 slugging percentage and 17 doubles along with the second-highest totals in batting average (.363), runs batted in (30), and triples (4).
He earned his bachelor's degree in Communications & Media Technologies from Academy of Art in 2019.
