High School Baseball Players Involved In Brawl Caught On Tape Say They Weren't Aggressors

VALENCIA (CBSLA.com) — High school baseball players shown punching a 16-year-old classmate in a story aired on KCAL9 News at 10 p.m. on Wednesday say they were not the aggressors in the confrontation.

One junior varsity player talked with KCAL9's Peter Daut to counter the unidentified student's story in which he claimed to be a victim.

That student's father told Daut on Wednesday that his son was an honors student who did nothing to warrant the attack.

The fight happened Friday evening after a football game at Valencia High School.

The alleged victim's father said his son was attacked without provocation and that he suffered a sprained neck and several cuts and bruises.

The junior varsity baseball player started by telling Daut that a longer videotape told a more-accurate story of what happened.

One player told Daut they were defending themselves and that they feared for their safety.

"We defended ourselves when there was a whole group of people who came down there and started a big fight," said one of the players.

The baseball player said the fight began as a result of trash talk on Twitter. He also said the teen who claimed he was beaten for no reason and several of his friends were kicked out of the football game for bad behavior.

"And then they came back on to campus, one-and-a-half to two hours after the football game, looking for a fight," he said.

The baseball players showed Daut a video of the student saying he was going to fight the team.

"We did not jump the kid. They kept on going on about it," the player said.

And online petition is demanding the players be kicked off the team. They said they are also getting threats, including one showing a gun with a caption "When's their next practice?"

The player's mother, who also didn't want her face shown, is also concerned for her son's safety.

"It really is concerning. It makes my stomach hurt; it makes me sick," she said.

The school's principal issued a statement Thursday and agreed with the players that the video shown Wednesday displayed "only a small portion of the story."

"The snippet shows a very narrow view of one segment of a complex altercation that started at the beginning of the week of Oct. 13, 2014 ... Disciplinary action has been taken against seven students based on the evidence," wrote John Costanzo, the principal.

Daut on Thursday spoke to the father of the alleged victim. He strongly disagreed with the player's version of events. He also said he was very unhappy with how the school is handling the incident. He told Daut: "The video speaks for itself."

The Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Department is investigating the fight.

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