A US baseball team responsible for humiliating a gay men’s chorus during a Pride-themed performance of the national anthem has said it will ‘take action’ against those involved in the mishap.

On Saturday, the San Diego’s Gay Men’s Chorus was scheduled to sing the US national anthem ahead of a San Diego Padres baseball game as part of an evening to celebrate Pride. However, when the time came for them to mime along to a prerecorded track of them singing, a female voice singing the anthem was played instead.

Members of the choir said they were booed and heckled on their way off the field, reports The Advocate. On Saturday night the club said they had disciplined an employee and stopped working with a contractor who the team said was involved in the incident.

The choir hinted that the mishap was potentially deliberate, citing tension between the Padres management and the choir in the weeks leading up to the even. This was refuted by Padre president Mick Dee.

In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, the club apologised to the “members of the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus, their families and those who came out to support their Pride Night performance.”

“The Padres organisation is proud of our longstanding commitment to inclusion – within both our sport and our community. We deeply regret that a mistake on our part has called this into question, but accept full responsibility.”

The LA Times also reported that the chorus was subject to embarrasing insults such as “That’s the best you’ve ever sounded” and “’You sang like a girl!”.

The Padres have enjoyed a mostly positive relationship with the LGBT community; in 2001 it was the first Major League Baseball team to host a Pride night, and has its vice president of social responsibility and inclusion, Billy Bean, is openly gay.

“They have made every effort to include the LGBT community and champion equality in MLB for each and every one of us,” Bean told the LA Times.