Tennessee baseball short stop Maui Ahuna cleared to play amid eligibility concerns

Tennessee baseball short stop Maui Ahuna has been cleared to play following eligibility concerns after transferring to the Volunteers, per Volquest.

“After missing the first eight games of the 2023 campaign, Tennessee fans received some good news on Monday as their star transfer portal addition was cleared for game activity – he announced on social media,” wrote Eric Cain of Volquest. “A source with direct knowledge confirmed the news with Volquest.

“Short stop Maui Ahuna is expected to make his Tennessee debut on Tuesday in a midweek home contest with Charleston Southern.”

Moreover, the surprising revelation regarding Ahuna’s eligibility originally came to light hours before their season-opening contest, but it’s evident that’s now been put in the past.

Maui Ahuna will look to contribute in a big way to a Volunteers team looking for big things in 2023.

Tennessee Baseball: Tony Vitello raves about progress from Jared Dickey

Jared Dickey missed large chunks of the 2022 season with injury issues. Now, just five games into the 2023 season, Tennessee Volunteers coach Tony Vitello raved about the progress that Dickey has made to this point.

After Tennessee’s two-game midweek series against Alabama A&M, where the Volunteers shut out and run-ruled the Bulldogs, Vitello praised Dickey.

“Jared Dickey is such a high-energy guy,” Tony Vitello said. “You see it in everything he does, and it’s kind of cool because he didn’t use to be like that. He’s transitioned a lot of things, and now he’s a super high-energy guy and I think it probably hurt him a little bit last weekend.” 

Tennessee got off to a 1-2 start during its opening weekend series. That was the MLB Desert Invitational, where the Volunteers lost to Arizona and Grand Canyon before beating UC San Diego.

“Probably the last kid on our roster I’d ever want to say anything negative about, but I think it hurt him that he was a little too amped up last weekend and he kind of had a little more calm to him,” Vitello said. 

“So, when your lead-off guy is on base or one of your leaders ignites some things, you know, then you’ve got other guys behind him in a good position to do damage, which the two or three guys behind him are incredibly talented.”