Plant senior baseball player Logan Welch has verbally committed to Maryland, Panthers coach Dennis Braun announced Wednesday.

Welch, who played for Braun as a sophomore, actually attended school in Connecticut last year but has transferred back to Plant for his senior season. Braun said Welch is a versatile player who likely will play several positions for the Panthers, who should be one of the most talented teams in Hillsborough County this season.

“He’s a big kid, swings the bat pretty well. He’ll probably do a lot of things for us; we’ll move him around a little bit,” said Braun, adding Welch is projected to play second base in college.

Welch is the second Panthers senior to commit to a Division I program. Plant’s Preston Tucker previously committed to Florida.

Speaking of baseball news, let the Tribune be the first to congratulate Seffner Christian for becoming the first Hillsborough County baseball program to secure a berth in the state playoffs for the upcoming season, a notable achievement considering the regular season doesn’t begin until February 2008.

Just how is this possible? Well, with the FHSAA’s annual state classification shuffle, Seffner Christian was lumped into the Class 1A-District 9 with only one other team, Lakeland Sonrise Christian. That means Seffner Christian can’t finish any worse than a district runner-up, and both the district champ and runner-up advance to the state playoffs.

Class 1A-District 9 is the state’s only two-team district.