Answer:
The Statement is wrong because the reverse is the case as it is the kinetic energy that is being transformed to gravitational potential energy.
Explanation:
As your friend throws the baseball into the air the ball gains an initial velocity (u) and this makes the Kinetic energy to be equal to
Here m is the mass of the baseball
Now as this ball moves further upward the that velocity it gained reduce due to the gravitational force and this in turn reduces the kinetic energy of the ball and this kinetic energy lost is being converted to gravitational potential energy which is mathematically represented as (m×g×h)
as energy can not be destroyed but converted to a different form according to the first law of thermodynamics
Looking a the formula for gravitational potential energy we see that the higher the ball goes the grater the gravitational potential energy.