Santa Clara students out in force at Giants game

By Nick Ostiller

The San Francisco Giants held a College Night on Wednesday. The special event included a ticket offer for college students, who would be able to sit in a designated college section with hundreds of other students from around the Bay Area.

Santa Clara University participated in the event and sophomore Kaveri Gyanendra a had a great time watching the Giants defeat the Arizon Diamondbacks, 4-3.

"It was really fun to see all of the Santa Clara students come together  in a place that's off-campus," said Gyanedra.

The Bay Area students were treated to a good game, and students from Santa Clara made up a large quantity of the college attendance.

"I recognized over 50 people just from the sophomore class alone," Gyanendra recalled. She also said that being together with everyone on the train back to campus was a fun experience in itself.

College Night was a good way for students to meet new people.

Similarly, the San Francisco Giants were glad to meet the Arizona Diamondbacks' reliever David Hernandez, much to the dismay of starter Ian Kennedy.

Kennedy was dominant for more than two hours, matching two-time NL Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum almost pitch for pitch.

It took reliever David Hernandez less than 15 minutes to render it all meaningless.

Hernandez issued a four-pitch leadoff walk to Buster Posey then gave up a game-ending RBI single to Cody Ross two batters later, wasting Kennedy's eight-inning gem in a 1-0 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday.

"That's been the story of my season so far is walking guys, especially leadoff guys," said Hernandez, who retired just one batter and suffered his first loss of the year. "Eventually it's going to come back and get you, and today was one of those days."

Kennedy pitched with runners on base each of the first four innings but wriggled out of the jams each time. He had to because Lincecum was throwing a blanket over the Diamondbacks' offense.

Lincecum struck out nine batters and took a no-hitter into the sixth in another dominating start for the Giants ace, giving San Francisco consecutive shutouts. It was also the first time Arizona has been held scoreless this season.

"It brings back times when we did that in college against each other," said Kennedy, who played for Southern California while Lincecum pitched at Washington. "To me it's fun when you have those type of games. It's real tight where every pitch means something."

Kennedy left with his third straight no-decision despite striking out eight while allowing four hits.

Lincecum didn't allow a hit until the sixth inning and it was the most unlikely candidate who finally snapped Lincecum's streak.

Kennedy sent a groundball up the middle for a clean single with one out in the sixth for his first hit of the season, snapping an 0-for-13 skid at the plate.

The Giants loaded the bases with one out in the fourth before Kennedy recovered, striking out Ross and getting Mark DeRosa to ground into a double play.

Kennedy didn't allow another baserunner until Freddy Sanchez's one-out single in the eighth, even breaking the strings on Miguel Montero's glove on his 115th pitch.

Posey led off the ninth with a four-pitch walk. He was lifted for pinch-runner Darren Ford, who stole second so easily that Montero didn't even contest with a throw.

Hernandez rallied by striking out Aubrey Huff before Ross sent a line drive past diving third baseman Melvin Mora for another thrilling late-inning victory that is becoming all too common again for the defending World Series champions. The Giants have five walk-off wins already this year.

"We kind of have that fire going into those last innings knowing that anything can happen," Lincecum said. "And stuff like this does, and it seems to happen to us quite a bit."

Brian Wilson (3-1) pitched a scoreless ninth for the win. The Giants have won five consecutive games and are now tied with the Colorado Rockies atop the National League west.

Contact Nick Ostiller at nostiller@scu.edu or (408) 551-1918. The Associated Press contributed to this report.