An incident during a high school baseball game between Cardinal Gibbons and Oxford Webb on March 22 led to three players being ejected and suspended for future games.

During the game at Webb, a member of the Cardinal Gibbons varsity team rounded third base and ran head-first into an Oxford Webb player at home plate. Immediately, the two players exchanged three punches.

Players from both teams left their benches and headed to home plate, though officials from both schools said no additional punches were thrown.

"Lots of kids pulling each other back," Webb athletic director Rick Givens said Thursday.

The two players who exchanged punches were ejected and suspended for four games. One additional Cardinal Gibbons player was suspended for two games for accidentally coming in contact with Oxford Webb coach Jeff Tate, whose ribs were injured as he tried to clear players from home plate.

No charges were filed against anyone involved, Givens said. The teams completed the baseball game after the incident subsided.

N.C. High School Athletic Association associate director Rick Strunk said that all three students involved have successfully completed the STAR Sportsmanship program required by the association when there are ejections.

Cardinal Gibbons athletic director Dean Monroe said that players from both teams were wrong to leave the bench and break a clear rule enforced by the NCHSAA. Still, he said those players other than the two who threw punches were never engaged in a brawl of any kind.