High school baseball player who peed in opponent’s water jug now facing 15 counts of battery

A Junior Varsity baseball player in California is claiming it was just a joke, but Rio Rancho police aren’t laughing. A teenage baseball player (whose name has been redacted from reports due to his age) was filmed peeing in an opposing team’s water jug, before returning it to the visiting dugout during a March 25 game between Rio Rancho High School and La Cueva high school.

The player told police that it was his responsibility to fill the home and away water jugs prior to the game from a hose near the field, and he used this as an opportunity to urinate in the La Cueva water jug — but said he only was able to put “five drops” of urine in the water, according to his version of events. The incident was filmed by his friends, and uploaded to Snapchat.

It’s then believed that 15 players from La Cueva drank the pee-tainted water, with officials saying players often bring their own water bottles to games, but use the jug in the dugout to refill their bottles. This has led to the Rio Rancho player to be reported to Juvenile Probation and Parole, with law enforcement officials believing there’s cause to charge the boy with 15 counts of battery, one for each opponent who drank the tainted water.

The motive for the incident is currently unknown. The player facing the charges is saying he simply meant it as a joke, and that he didn’t pee in the jug as retaliation — but others aren’t so sure. During a game between the teams on March 1st the peeing player was punched by a La Cueva opponent, and according to the boy’s father the school didn’t report the incident because they wanted to handle it “a different way.” He noted that perhaps peeing in the water jug wouldn’t have happened had the punch “been handled differently.”

The entire Rio Rancho High School JV team has been suspended pending the investigation being finalized. It’s unclear if more players who assisted in the incident could also be charged.