Even as the Giants staved off a late offensive surge from the visiting Cincinnati Reds Wednesday, it was the spirit of the stadium’s purple-and-gold-clad fans that impressed SF State alumni Ryan McCormick on AT&T Park’s first-ever SF State University Night.

“I was surprised of the strong Gator turn-out” McCormick said. “I was a commuter, so I didn’t do the whole pride thing, but events like these bring out the Gator pride.”

The event was held in conjunction with the university’s Alumni Association annual Giants game outing, which first began eight years ago. The association purchased 200 tickets to the game in February and the SF Giants coincidentally chose the same home game to host the SF State promotion.

The SF State Alumni Association worked out an agreement with the Giants’ marketing and promotions department granting the first 1,000 individuals who purchased special event tickets to the game a limited edition SF State purple and gold Giants hat, according to Doug Hupke, SF State director of alumni relations.

Additionally, a portion of the proceeds will fund SF State scholarships, according to SF Giants special events and sales marketing assistant Rocky Dudum.

Patrick Maris, a fifth year senior on SF State’s hockey team, said he and his teammates enjoyed the event and hope to attend future SF State promotion nights at the ballpark.

“I would like to attend this event again with my team and market and promote the SF State hockey team as well,” Maris said.

The Giants planned university-specific event nights for Stanford, University of California, Berkeley and University of California, San Francisco in addition to SF State.

“The reason why we chose to partner with SF State is because we wanted to start with one of the local universities in the Bay Area,” Dudum said.

Vanessa Martinez, a senior majoring in Kinesiology, said she plans to attend future SF State special events due to the sense of community that was generated at the game.

“SF State Night gets friends and family together and brings us closer,” Martinez said.