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Two men were seriously injured in a melee early yesterday morning outside the Mai Tai Caf…, a Rantoul Street bar that has been under scrutiny by the city's Licensing Board over past fights.

Two other men, including a bouncer, are facing assault charges.

Calvin Johnson, 31, of Lynn has been charged with two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after he hit another bar patron and a bouncer with a baseball bat, according to police.

The bouncer, Hector Isales, 23, of 22 Pleasant St., Beverly, took the bat away from Johnson and used it to hit another patron, Jerome Anderson, police said. Isales was a bouncer at the bar but was not assigned to work at the time, the bar's head bouncer told police. Other bouncers told police that they asked him to help when the fight broke out.

Isales is also charged with assault and battery.

The two victims, Anderson and Miguel Cuevas, were taken to Boston hospitals for treatment of serious head injuries, according to a police report filed in court yesterday. Cuevas suffered a skull fracture and hematoma and is being treated at Massachusetts General Hospital. Anderson is being treated at Beth Israel Hospital for a shattered eye socket and a head injury.

The brawl is the latest problem at the Mai Tai Caf…, which is located near the Beverly commuter rail depot. The city's Licensing Board suspended the bar's license for six days in March after several fights outside the bar.

"I feel terrible," said owner Bill Kwan last night. "I don't want this kind of thing to happen in my bar. No restaurant owner, no bar owner, wants this to happen."

The brawl started just after midnight yesterday when words were exchanged between a group of white patrons, including Anderson, and a group of black patrons that included Johnson.

Witnesses told police that Anderson appeared to be the aggressor inside the bar. As bouncers tried to clear the bar, Johnson allegedly went to his Land Rover parked outside and got a Franklin Red Sox baseball bat, then used it to strike Cuevas.

At some point, Isales allegedly got control of the bat and began swinging it, striking Anderson, Anderson's cousin Mark told police.

Police arriving at the scene found chaos, Patrolman Darlene Prinz said yesterday, with a large crowd offering police varying accounts of what happened inside and outside the bar.