Tony Vitello Looking To Make Alberto Osuna’s Time With Tennessee Baseball ‘Worth His While’

Tennessee transfer slugger Alberto Osuna’s playing future with the Vols is uncertain after a judge denied his request for a preliminary injunction on Monday afternoon.

If approved, the injunction would have made Osuna immediately eligible to play for Tennessee this season. Without it, Osuna is unlikely to get eligibility and play this season for the Vols. While Osuna’s chances of becoming eligible is unlikely, Tony Vitello is looking to make Osuna’s time at Tennessee worthwhile.

“I can’t do anything other than I can tell you this: We will make sure it is worth his while being at this place,” Vitello said on Tuesday night.

Osuna ran out of eligibility following the 2024 season after he played three years at North Carolina and two years at Walters State Community College. But Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia’s successful lawsuit set the precedent that junior college seasons can not count against an athlete’s division one eligibility.

The Mauldin, South Carolina native transferred to Tennessee in late January hoping that precedent would give him another year of eligibility. Osuna spent the fall at Division II power University of Tampa where he originally planned to play the 2025 season

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After the NCAA hadn’t assigned anyone to review Osuna’s case two days before the start of the season, he filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in hopes that a federal judge would grant him a preliminary injunction and subsequent immediate eligibility.

It was the same process that Pavia followed and Osuna’s case was very similar to the Vanderbilt quarterback’s. But the judge in the Osuna case saw things differently than the judge in the Pavia case and ruled differently.