Beloved college baseball player’s death rattles small SC college. ‘A friend to all’
Davis Heller was known as a “gentle giant” and a beloved member of his South Carolina college’s baseball team.
But the 22-year-old’s life was cut short Wednesday, Oct. 5, rattling his small Greenville-area school.
“Our baseball program is heartbroken over the loss of an amazing human being and brother in Christ,” Landon Powell, head baseball coach at North Greenville University, wrote in a statement. “Davis was a positive force everywhere he went.”
Officials said Heller, a junior pursuing a degree in strategic communication, died in an off-campus apartment in Greenville.
“Although there is an ongoing investigation, initial indications are that he died of natural causes,” the school said in a news release.
Heller was in his first semester at the school after transferring from the University of Alabama, where online stats show he played 23 games in the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Alabama’s baseball team remembered its former teammate in an online post.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Heller family,” the Crimson Tide’s team wrote on Twitter. “Davis was loved by everyone and a friend to all. He will be missed.”
Also mourning the loss was the baseball coach at North Greenville University, who called the 6-foot-8-inch player a “gentle giant.”
“An example of what a great teammate should be, Davis has left a lasting legacy on this program,” Powell wrote in his statement. “A great competitor, but even better friend to those who got to know him.”
Heller, who grew up in Arizona, was a first baseman for his new team at North Greenville University.
The Greenville County Coroner’s Office said Heller was “found dead during a welfare check.” An autopsy was performed on the student athlete’s body, which had “no signs of trauma or injuries,” officials wrote in a news release.
North Greenville University’s main campus is in Tigerville, roughly 15 miles north of Greenville. The private college has ties to the S.C. Baptist Convention and had almost 2,000 undergraduate students in fall 2021, according to its website and U.S. News & World Report.
This story was originally published October 7, 2022 at 10:42 AM with the headline "Beloved college baseball player’s death rattles small SC college. ‘A friend to all’."
