High School Team Denies Winning For Dead Teammate

MONONGAHELA, FL—The Monongahela West Tarpon, a boy’s prep baseball team that has surged to a two-game lead in the Frostproof conference with a remarkable seven-game winning streak since the death of second-string catcher Nathan Bannersly, denied Tuesday that their winning streak had anything do to with honoring Bannersly’s memory. “Wow, I didn’t even put the two together, but I guess we have been doing pretty good since that one kid’s crash,” pitcher Troy Metz (5-1) said of the teammate whose body was thrown from his Toyota Corolla the night of April 11, killing him instantly. “His name was Nathan, you said? Because there’s this one lady who’s been holding up a “NATHAN” sign at all our games lately. You know, I bet that’s, like, his mom.” Other Tarpon players agreed that the coincidence was, in fact, “kind of weird.”