Unless this was a new rule, the baseball players knew the consequences. Without knowing any more than what woody4220 posted, we don't know if it was their first offense or their third. We don't know if the the school is cracking down because they have had numerous alcohol issues. We don't know anything more than what is posted.
Bottom line, if you want to remain on the team in good standing, then follow the rules. Don't drink during the season.
Especially if you want to play in college......
Lots of kids don't drink during the season because they respect the game of baseball too much.
One of my sons was on a hs team that did have an alcohol problem. (!) Problem was, they never got caught. But it got so bad that the coach finally yelled at them that he was tired of them showing up for the Saturday double-headers hung-over, reeking of alcohol. Guess what, the team didn't do so well on Saturdays. Kind of a problem for the few kids who didn't drink. Who wanted to play well. Who didn't want to waste every Saturday morning and afternoon playing on a team that clearly was not in any position to play one game, let alone two. Week after week after week.
Finally, one Friday night "party" got busted. One of the senior National Honor Society members on the baseball team tried running away. But he tripped and fell into in a creek--with a concussion and broken elbow that didn't allow him to get out of the creek.....and he came close to drowning. Thankfully, another kid was able to rescue him......And that was the end of his baseball-playing days. And he got kicked out of the NHS.
There are lots of other stories in my little community--like the football player who got so drunk at a party in the forest preserve--but the others didn't want to call 911 for fear that the police would come...so another boy took him to the hospital--with no identification. And because no one wanted to be known as having been at the party, he wasn't identified for days...(The principals at the neighboring schools were finally called in.) He came close to dying, but again, thankfully he didn't.
In another thread the question was--what will it take before it changes? Well, will it take a high school kid in your community to die of alcohol-poisoning before the rules are enforced? Or should the rules be enforced with strict penalties so that a tragedy doesn't occur? And I'm not even addressing the driving aspect. That's another topic.
I'm not passing judgment regarding the morality or anything of teen-age drinking. But if a kid drinks at a party, then the kid drinks at a party. He takes the drink himself, knowing what it is. Unless his soft drink was laced with something....... He knows what he's doing. And he doesn't think he'll get caught. But if he is old enough to drink, then he is old enough to suffer the consequences. And if that means getting booted off the team, then so be it.
And if he doesn't like that consequence, then he shouldn't tempt fate. The season is too short to cut it off prematurely.