Jim Walker
jim.walker@irontontribune.com

The games will be in the daylight, but there will still be a few stars out.
Ironton’s annual Mike Burcham Wood Bat Classic will be Saturday with four games. All former Ironton players are being invited to attend and be recognized prior to the first game at approximately 9:45 a.m.
Jerry Murnahan — one of the all-time Ironton greats — will throw out the first pitch.
Murnahan holds many Ironton career and season records. He has a career 30-6 won-loss record and was 14-0 in the 1972 championship season. He also had six saves that season giving him 20 appearances in 32 games.
Older brother Phil Murnahan — who was drafted by the Oakland Athletics — was 10-2 and 8-3 in two other seasons. Jeff “Sticks” Collins had records of 7-0 and 8-2.
Jerry Murnahan threw a complete game to win the Class AA state semifinal game in 1972. Collins went six innings in the title game for the win with Murnahan pitching a perfect seventh inning for the save.
Murnahan holds the Ironton career record with 245.2 innings pitched and with 49 games pitched. His 322 strikeouts rank first followed by Collins with 239 and Jerry’s older brother Phil Murnahan who had 236.
Phil had 143 strikeouts in 1968. Jerry is second and third on the single-season list with 132 and 110. Collins had 94 in 1974.
The single-game record for strikeouts is 17 by Jimmy Williams. Phil Murnahan and Collins each had 15 in a game.
Virtually unhittable with a fastball clocked at 100 miles an hour, Phil Murnahan has the all-time earned run averaged record of 0.536 over 156.2 innings with Jerry Murnahan second at 1.51.
Phil has the top two single-season ERA record at 0.39 and 0.72 while Jerry is fifth at 1.20 behind Joey Webb at 1.06 and Collins with 1.13.
Phil Murnahan has the most shutouts in a season with five and Jerry is second with four, but Jerry has the all-time record with nine for his career. Phil and Webb are second with six each.
However, Phil Murnahan had three no-hitters in one season for a school record. Collins has thrown the only seven-inning perfect game and Williams is the only pitcher with back-to-back no-hitters.
The fourth game of the Classic will feature Lexington Bryan Station and Ironton. Bryan Station is coached by former Ironton and University of Pikeville standout Justin Royal who was a teammate of Ironton head coach Travis Wylie.
Here is the schedule:
10 a.m. Lucasville Valley vs. Ironton
12:30 Lucasville Valley vs. Spring Valley
3 p.m. Huntington vs. Lexington Bryan Station
5:30 Bryan Station vs. Ironton