Little league players were upset last week after thieves stole the net to a batting cage, leaving it unusable.

Frank Fischer, president of YAO Baseball Bermuda, said that while the cage was intact when players practised on April 27, by the next morning the net was gone.

“It was there until 8pm on Thursday and when one of our volunteers went out to mow the grass on Friday morning it was gone,” he said.

“We called each other and I asked him if he had done something with it and he asked me if I had done something with the nets.

“It’s just so unfortunate for the kids. We scrape together money to make improvements when we can and then something like this happens.”

He said the net itself had cost the charity about $2,000 when it was first purchased and a replacement could now cost $4,000 to $5,000.

“It’s so very frustrating. We are a volunteer organisation that supports 300 kids from the ages of 4 to 16,” Mr Fischer said.

“It takes a lot of effort to cut down a net that weighs 70 to 80lbs, and I don’t know what they would do with it. Fishing maybe?”

He added that while other small items had been taken from the field and volunteers occasionally had to remove empty beer bottles from the area, the theft of the net was a far bigger blow.

David LaHuta, a spokesman and coach for the organisation, said the theft was “unfortunate and saddening” for those who regularly use the cage to train.

“It’s a huge blow because it’s our only batting cage for the Cal Ripken division and the Babe Ruth division, so you are talking about up to 100 kids using this cage on a daily basis,” he said.

“Now they can’t. It’s gone. It’s really terrible.”

Mr LaHuta added that the loss of the net rendered the batting cage “all but impossible to use” and would take time to replace.

“If you put a pitching machine inside, the kid is going to smash balls and they are going to go all over the place making it unsafe for spectators,” he said.

“The fact of the matter is it’s not going to get fixed or replaced any time soon, so this whole little league season is going to be a wash.”

Mr LaHuta said that police had been contacted about the theft.