Two MTSU baseball players, Conlon Palo and Damian Seguen, have been charged with rape and dismissed from the team.Palo, 18, and Seguen, 21, were arrested by the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office on Thursday, according to an incident report on file with the sheriff's office.

Bond was set at $10,000 pending a Feb. 7 appearance in General Sessions Court. No details of the alleged rape, including the exact date of the offense, where it occurred or what happened, were provided by the sheriff's office or campus police. MTSU athletic director Chris Massaro, however, said the incident occurred in December.

Massaro and baseball head coach Steve Peterson released statements Friday acknowledging the arrests and the decision regarding their player status.

"These are very serious charges and my role is not to determine guilt or innocence. That is the role of our judicial system," Massaro said. "I decide who represents Middle Tennessee as part of our athletic program and have dismissed both players from the team effective immediately.

"We all know what kind of program coach Steve Peterson has run the past 24 years and these accusations certainly go against what he has built during that time. However, the baseball program will continue to move forward."

Added Peterson, in the statement: "I fully support and concur with the decision to dismiss Conlon Palo and Damian Seguen from our team. I believe in the judicial system and through its course it will reach the appropriate conclusion."

Palo had previously been charged with simple possession of drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia and underage consumption from an unrelated incident on Dec. 11, according to campus police media log.

At that Dec. 11 incident, Palo was among 17 individuals arrested for underage consumption, including nine MTSU student-athletes, at two separate gatherings at Scarlett Commons apartments.

Those athletes charged for underage consumption included Hunter Adkins (baseball), Conlon Palo (baseball), older brother Daniel Palo (baseball), Kendall Howard (volleyball), Angela Peyton (volleyball), Kayla Toney (softball), Kerry Hammonds (men’s basketball), Patrick McNeil (football) and Dominique Allen (football).