The College Scene: Catching up with former LI baseball stars
Cody Miller of Rocky Point, now at East Tennessee State, and Richie Heyder of Sachem East, now at Farmingdale State. Credit: Brian Miller; Farmingdale State College Athletics / Mike Janes
Take a trip to Johnson City, Tennessee, and there you will find one of the top college baseball players from Long Island.
East Tennessee State junior shortstop Cody Miller had a strong first two seasons, but this spring he has made a major splash with eye-popping numbers.
Entering Saturday, the Rocky Point native was slashing .351/.461/.701 with 14 home runs, 12 doubles, 47 RBIs and 17 stolen bases. He hit only two homers as a sophomore and two as a freshman. So where did the increase in power come from?
“I think just getting my swing off in plus counts and really learning how to use my legs a little bit more,” Miller said. “I would say that I’m a pretty athletic kid, so I kind of just got away with contact for a long time.
“This year, I knew that I needed to figure out how to use my legs and incorporate my body in order to get that power out of myself that I knew that I had the whole time, but just needed to figure it out.
“Who would have thought that I would have 14 homers right now? Just as long as I’m hitting the ball hard, I’m happy.”
The 5-11 Miller, a two-time Newsday All-Long Island first-team selection at Rocky Point, committed to ETSU as a high school sophomore. He had a connection with Buccaneers coach Joe Pennucci, who spent 12 years with the Stony Brook baseball program, where Cody’s father, Brian Miller, worked in communications.
Miller, primarily a third baseman in his first two seasons at ETSU, earned All-Southern Conference freshman honors in 2023 and hit .340 last season. He added eight pounds of muscle in the offseason and worked with ETSU athletic trainer Michael Bischoff, who is from Commack.
ETSU, who entered Saturday 29-11 overall and 9-4 in the conference, is 50th in the RPI and hopes to win next month’s SoCon Tournament for its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2013.
Miller spoke about the goals ahead: “Win the SoCon, go to a regional, and we’re not done once we get to a regional. We’re hoping to go in somewhere and take it over. Like Stony Brook said when they won it in 2012: Shock the world. Make it to the College World Series.”
Miller is set to play for the Y-D Red Sox in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League this summer. He has seen two ETSU teammates selected in the previous MLB Drafts — Cameron Sisneros (Cubs, 2024) and Austin Emener (Rockies, 2023) — and hopes to join them soon.
“That’s been my dream since I was a little kid,” Miller said. “So that’s the main goal, personally. If that can happen, that would be a dream come true.”
Heyder just hits
Holbrook native Richie Heyder is producing at a historic level for Farmingdale State.
The Rams junior rightfielder, a 2022 Newsday All-Long Island second-team selection at Sachem East, entered Saturday with a .449 batting average. He had a 1.203 OPS with two home runs, three triples, seven doubles and 21 RBIs in 24 games.
And his average keeps on climbing. Heyder was hitting .368 at the end of March and has a .525 average in April.
“I sit back and I look at it after games,” Heyder said. “Normally, I’ll check and I’ll just kind of go through the games in my head. I’m very happy with where I’m at right now. We have a couple games left, but the main aspect of the season is always to get to the championship and take one home for the school.
“So as much as I am happy with how I’m doing, it is very good that we’re at the top of the conference right now and we’re doing well.”
The Rams (17-9, 10-2), who entered Saturday tied for first in the Skyline Conference, are searching for their first NCAA Division III Tournament bid since 2019.
The 5-10 Heyder spent the fall of his freshman year at NJIT, but dislocated his shoulder and needed rotator cuff surgery. He medically withdrew from NJIT and ultimately reunited with longtime Farmingdale State coach Keith Osik, also his former travel coach.
Heyder, who hit .366 last season, is now in reach of Carey alum Michael Marino’s program-record average of .463 set in 2015.
“[I’m] not doing too much, kind of just staying simple, knowing the situation and the thought of just passing the bat,” Heyder said. “Trying to get as many guys up in an inning as possible. Not doing too much and trusting my teammates.”
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
