Thief steals hundreds of dollars worth of custom gear from World Baseball Classic prospect

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) -- Right off the bat, you can see Coach Hank Gonzales’ dedication to baseball.

“'Atta boy,” he said to one of his players when he threw a good pitch.

From playing since he was 3 years old to coaching for the last four years, Gonzales has left a mark on his players.

“He’s a really good coach. I was really shy, and it was really nice meeting like he really did good lessons and taught me stuff, which really helped me out,” said Sebastian Lacsina, who's been training with Gonzales for the last two years.

Gonzales has spent hours with Sebastian working on all areas of the game.

“There’s a big improvement just within one lesson,” said Alex Lacsina, Sebastian's dad.

Tough times financially for the Lacsina family meant they almost put that improvement on pause.

“I was straight up with Coach Hank, and he was just like ‘you know what, just bring him down,’ and we brought him down and he was like I know times are tough, I’ll work with you,” Lacsina said.

Gonzales didn’t let that happen.

“I’m never gonna take that away from a kid because you don’t know what bash is gonna be one day,” Gonzales said.

On Saturday, Gonzales finally got away from home plate for an overnight trip to Universal Studios with his girlfriend.

“I’ve been really busy with everything I’ve been doing for training, so we just decided to get away for a little while,” he said.

When he returned to his truck to travel back to San Diego, he says he saw his truck window smashed.

“Everything was gone as far as my gear, the bag, the bats, protective gear, everything,” he said.

Gonzales says a thief broke into his truck, caused an estimated $200 in damages to the windows and stole approximately $1,200 worth of custom equipment.

“It’s like your whole heart like it just breaks," Gonzales said. "It’s like oh man. I don’t know how to describe it because you just run cold because everything you worked hard for and it’s just gone in a second.”

The Lacsinas found out about the break-in on social media over the weekend.

“It’s really sad to like getting like new gear and your stuff is like broken in, and it’s a lot of precious things to you,” Sebastian said, and they had to do something.

“He was there for me and my son, and so I wanted to do the same,” Lacsina said.

This comes as Gonzales prepares to travel to Nicaragua to tryout for a spot on their team that plays in the World Baseball Classic.

“I have my own protective gear is kind of tough," he said. "That’s kind of the big issue. Obviously, there’s other things I can work on meanwhile.”

Without his gear, training is a challenge, but the GoFundMe page, the baseball community already raised almost $500 to support Gonzales.

“Alex and Bash decided to make that video for me, and I felt like oh my goodness like I’m not alone here," he said.

Gonzales has about five weeks left to repurchase all the stolen gear before he travels to Nicaragua to tryout for their team in the World Baseball Classic.