PISCATAWAY - Seven former Rutgers softball players and five parents are claiming physical and emotional abuse by head coach Kristen Butler and her volunteer-assistant husband, Marcus Smith, according to an NJ.com report.

The culture around the program under Butler and Smith, who were hired in June 2018, was so volatile that 10 players left the program within a year of Butler's hiring, the report said.

The allegations in the report made by the seven players and five coaches, some of whom requested anonymity for fear of retribution, are as follows.

Seven players said the team was regularly punished for menial transgressions with conditioning drills that veered into abuse. Two players said Butler would even physically push players in the back to make them run faster in drills.

Six players said they were physically abused at practice, including one drill in which they were intentionally hit by pitches thrown by assistant coach Brandon Duncan. During another drill, Butler hit rapid-fire ground balls at a player, striking her with the ball and leaving her scratched from diving, multiple players said.

Five players said Smith invaded their privacy by confiscating their phones and viewing their screens without permission, and made numerous inappropriate comments. In one alleged incident, he boarded the team’s bus and told the women it smelled like “period blood.”

Seven players said Butler attempted to run out players she didn’t think were good enough from the previous coaching regime. She also possibly violated an NCAA rule when she attempted to revoke the scholarship of sophomore infielder Myah Moy and another player who ended up transferring, the two players said.

In responses to NJ.com inquiries, Butler, athletic director Pat Hobbs, and deputy athletic director Sarah Baumgartner denied all allegations against the softball program and the athletic department. This came on Wednesday, a day after Hobbs went on a profanity-filled tirade towards one of the reporters working on the story.

On Thursday, school President Robert Barchi announced an outside investigation would be launched.

"We continuously review our programs to ensure the protection of our student-athletes, both in response to allegations and to ensure compliance with NCAA standards. While I am confident that Athletics has followed appropriate procedures here, out of an abundance of caution I have nevertheless called for an outside investigation into the reported allegations,'' Barchi said in a statement.

Barchi also addressed Hobbs's use of profanity to a reporter.

"I have spoken to Pat Hobbs regarding the language in the exchange with a sports reporter at the Star-Ledger. While I understand the frustration he was experiencing at not being given time to thoroughly respond to an expansive list questions, I have made it clear that there is never a time when such language is acceptable,'' Barchi said. "Mr. Hobbs has apologized to the reporter directly.''

Hobbs also issued a statement apologizing to the "community":

"The other day I reacted inappropriately when informed that we would not be given some additional time to respond to a reporter’s questions concerning our softball program. In this case, the questions centered on concerns that were raised from parents and a number of former players regarding some of the practice drills and team activities for the softball team following the recruitment of a top flight Division I softball coach,'' the statement from Hobbs said. "The concerns were reviewed and where remedial action was necessary, changes were made. A report to the NCAA of a single Level III violation for allowing individual student athletes to practice a total of two hours more than allowable over the course of a two-month period, was reported to the NCAA. The volunteer coach, Marcus Smith, was separated from the team. As a leader at Rutgers University and someone who should serve as a role model to our young men and women it was wrong for me to use the language that I did. I apologized to the reporter but I owe an apology to the Rutgers community as well. It won’t happen again. The well-being of our student-athletes is always my first priority, and we will continue to be vigilant in addressing any concerns across all of our programs.''

The allegations against Butler mark the third time in six years a Rutgers coached has been accused of abuse (Mike Rice, men's basketball, 2017; Petra Martin, swimming, 2017). Of those three, Martin and Butler have come under Hobbs' watch. Both Rice and Martin were eventually fired in the wake of media reports about the abuse surfacing.

Josh Newman is currently the beat reporter for Rutgers University sports. He's a native of Commack, New York, on the north shore of Long Island, and is almost entirely free of his New York accent. Contact him at jnewman4@gannettnj.com