ST. LOUIS – University of Missouri-St. Louis baseball seniors
Mitch Bonczkowski and
Eli Cartwright added more postseason accolades on Tuesday as they were named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-America team. Bonczkowski was a first team honoree while Cartwright landed on the second team.
They become the 28th and 29th Triton student-athletes to earn Academic All-America honors and are the third and fourth players from the baseball program to receive the prestigious honor joining Bob Bone (1976 and 1977) and Brad Brown (1977). Bone and Brown were both second team selections.
Bonczkowski and Cartwright are the fifth and sixth UMSL student-athletes during the 2025-26 school year to earn the distinction joining Taylor Martin (women's soccer), Skylar Weaver and Alyana Santel (volleyball) and Mara Rieder (women's basketball). The six student-athletes to earn Academic All-American accolades is the most in a single year in school history.
Bonczkowski, an educational studies major, had a 3.92 GPA and is the 10th student-athlete in school history to earn first team honors. He finished the season ranked in the top 20 in the NCAA in home runs (fifth), slugging percentage (seventh), home runs per game and total bases (eighth), batting average (11th), hits (16th), hits per game (17th) and runs batted in (20th). Bonczkowski is UMSL's single season leader in home runs (23), RBIs (75) and total bases (179) while his .852 slugging percentage is second best in a single season in school history. He also holds UMSL's career home run record with 32.
Cartwright, a sport management major, had a 3.93 GPA and is the 19th student-athlete in school history to earn second or third team honors. He finished the season ranked in the top 20 in the NCAA in strikeouts per nine innings (sixth), hist allowed per nine innings (10th) and strikeouts (11th). His 3.00 earned run average was best in the Great Lakes Valley Conference while his eight wins were tied for third in the conference. Cartwright's 101 strikeouts this season tied the UMSL single season record.
The Tritons finished the 2026 season with a 34-22 record including 24-8 in the GLVC, won the program's first GLVC title since 2003, made its first NCAA appearance since 2003 and won its first NCAA tournament game since 1996.
