Face Masks on Helmets for Baseball or No?

This past weekend, my sons played in a baseball tournament.  Because of the age group, they are no longer required to wear face masks across their helmet.  (the cage part that goes across their nose and mouth) So, of course they wanted to take the mask off so they can see better when they bat.  Everyone else also took their mask off so I didn't see a reason why they shouldn't.  Of course throughout the season I've been watching many games and have seen a lot of balls to the mouth, nose and eyes injuries.  However, I never put two and two together to come to the conclusion that maybe the face mask was a much better idea since it was protecting their FACE from fast pitches!

Until this game......my youngest son who plays up an age group was up to bat.  The pitcher throwing to him was a very hard and fast pitcher but not as accurate as some.  If you can envision the batting stance, his head is turned and bat is raised, completely making his face visible with no protection.  (Oh, how the face mask is becoming more my friend...)  The pitch came in about 40mph and rocked him in his eye.  My son dropped the bat and immediately placed his hands to his face in pain.  I was crazy scared and ran to the field.  Having a medical background, I knew many things could happen from this and some if not treated quickly could be very bad.  I was afraid his orbital bone, the bone surrounding the eye ball had been broken.  (If this happens, you will see a clear liquid flowing out the nose which means that could be brain fluid leaking....not good)  However, nothing like that had happened....in fact, after all was said and done, he barely had a black eye.  How this happened, I have no idea...it was hard and fast and perfectly positioned into his eye. 

Looking back, wish I would have never agreed to take the mask off.  I don't think it will be hard to convince him to let me put the mask back on considering the pain he felt, however convincing my oldest son who has never had a face injury,  to put his back on will be a challenge.  You rarely want to be the only person who has something different when you're a child and I can empathize with that, but I also don't care about the social status of protective gear and may just MAKE them play with it on.  What to do, what to do.....to be determined at a later date. :)