Montwood High baseball team forfeits playoff game due to “hazing incident”

A hazing incident involving six seniors and a junior is the reason Montwood High’s baseball team forfeited its playoff game this weekend.

SISD confirms the team forfeited its best-of-three series with Midland Lee because of an incident involving player misconduct. The Rams had already lost game one of the three-game series.

The ABC-7 I-Team obtained a police report filed by the Artesia Police Department stating the upperclassmen took turns whipping four sophomores with a leather whip.

The alleged hazing happened while the team was staying at the Hampton Inn at 2501 S. Permian Pavilion in Artesia, New Mexico on Saturday.

The team’s coaching staff reported the incident to police in Artesia. When an officer arrived, five of the seven upperclassmen allegedly involved in the hazing “had already been taken home by their parents,” according to the police report.

Coach Guillermo Romo told the officer investigating the incident each sophomore was whipped twice. Romo confiscated the leather whip, the report states.

The officer met with the victims, who said they were mostly whipped in the buttocks. Their parents declined to press charges, according to the police report.