Sheldon Neuse: Five Things You May Not Know About the All-Big 12 Shortstop

Oklahoma junior shortstop Sheldon Neuse is in highly select Big 12 company.

On Tuesday, Neuse was named to the All-Big 12 First Team. This is the third season that the OU shortstop has been a first-team all-conference selection. What makes this year’s selection extra special, though, is that Neuse has been a unanimous first-team choice all three seasons.

Only one other player in the 20-year history of the Big 12 has been so honored. Preston Morrison, a former pitcher for TCU from 2012-15, is the only other three-time unanimous pick.

The Oklahoma junior is one of only 10 Big 12 players to be honored as a first-team selection three times.

Neuse is the only Oklahoma Sooner named to the All-Big 12 First Team this season. Five of Neuse’s teammates (pitchers Chris Andritsos and JB Olson, outfielders Steele Walker and Cody Thomas and second baseman Jack Flansburg) received honorable-mention honors.

Neuse finished the regular season hitting .376, second best on the Big 12, and led the conference with a .672 slugging percentage. His 10 home runs and 46 RBI are tied for third in the league.

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In addition to his contributions on offense, the Sooner shortstop also pitched 19 1/3 innings in relief, recording five saves and a 4-1 record. He posted 19 strikeouts and held opponents to a .148 batting average.

Neuse, who likely will be selected in the upcoming Major League Baseball Amateur Draft, is a semifinalist for three national awards this season: the Dick Howser Award, the Golden Spikes Award and the John Olerud Award. The Dick Howser and Golden Spikes awards recognize the best player in college baseball, whild the Olerud Award honors the best two-way player in the college ranks.

That is a top-line listing of Neuse’s grand accomplishments this season. Here are five other things you might not know about the All Big-12 Sooner star:

• Out of Keller Fossil Ridge High School in Ft. Worth, Texas, where he was voted District MVP in both his junior and senior seasons, Sheldon Neuse was selected by the Texas Rangers in the 38th round of the 2013 Major League Baseball Draft, the 1,150 player selected overall.
• His freshman year at Oklahoma, he had an eight-RBI game against Cal State-Bakersfield, which included two home runs and a triple.
• In the summer of 2015, he played 36 games with the Harwich Mariners in the Cape Cod League. His season performance included four home runs, 18 runs driven in and 17 runs scored.
• OU head coach Pete Hughes had this to say about his three-time All-Big 12 shortstop in a recent article posted on the University of Oklahoma athletic website: “It’s not even debatable. This year, Sheldon (Neuse) is the best player I’ve ever coached. I don’t throw superlatives out there, but it is what it is.”
• Neuse was named to the 2016 Baseball America Preseason All-America Team.