Michael Volpe, who just completed his junior year at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, and is a resident of Garden City, earned his third varsity letter in baseball at the college this past spring, head coach Peter Kostacopoulos announced.

His third straight year as a starter, Volpe, who served as a team co-captain in 1999, played in 28 of the Cardinals' 34 contests with 25 starts, mostly at the shortstop position but also seeing some time at third base. Collecting 27 hits, including six doubles and one triple, in 94 at-bats, Volpe posted a .287 batting average. He scored 26 runs and drove in 15. He also stole 13 bases in 14 attempts, ranking second on the team in that area. In the field, Volpe had a solid .927 fielding percentage with 33 putouts, 68 assists and eight errors.

Over his three seasons with the team, Volpe has played in 74 contests with 56 starts. He has a career batting average of .338 with 74 hits in 219 at-bats. He has nine doubles, a triple and a pair of home runs to his credit, along with 19 stolen bases, 56 runs scored and 39 RBIs.

Qualifying for the ECAC New England Division III playoffs for the second year in a row, Wesleyan fashioned a solid 21-13 final record during the 1999 season. Unfortunately the Cardinals were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round by eventual champion Springfield College. Still, Wesleyan enjoyed tremendous success as the Cardinals closed out the year ranked among the national leaders in Division III in four categories, including team batting average (15th with a .352 mark), scoring (12th with 9.26 runs a game), doubles (fifth with 93 in 34 games), and slugging percentage (35th with a .502 mark). Wesleyan's 93 doubles also was a seasonal team record and the Cardinals set an NCAA Division III single-game record by lashing 12 doubles during a 20-5 victory over Western Connecticut. Wesleyan also posted five victories against teams that qualified for the NCAA Division III playoffs, including a double-header sweep of College World Series participant Brandeis University.

The son of Anthony and Dolores Volpe of Garden City, Volpe is a 1996 graduate of Garden City High School where he was a three-time letterwinner, all-conference and all-county honoree in baseball. He also won three varsity letters in ice hockey and was a member of the 1995 conference championship hockey team.

At Wesleyan, Volpe is majoring in government and is a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.