La Serna High baseball co-coach Anthony Gonzales Jr. revealed maybe the area’s best-kept secret when he called the paper on Thursday evening to report that junior Connor Burke had verbally committed to the University of Washington.

This was not a recent development.

In fact, Gonzales Jr. noted Burke had committed to the Pac-10 Huskies in the beginning of the year but chose to defer his announcement until after the season, believing such a proclamation would be a distraction.

Burke, a junior, was recruited as a hitter and posted a solid 2010 campaign in which he helped keep the Lancers (14-13-1) in the pennant chase until the final week as La Serna was the lone DRL squad to earn a postseason win.

Burke concluded his season batting .453 with four homers and 25 RBIs while scoring a whooping 29 runs. The Lancers will likely return in 2011 as the league favorite (with Santa Fe close behind) due in part to Burke.

Kudos and congratulations Connor.

Editor’s Note: The paper would like to thank Gonzales Jr. for updating his stats.