FORT MYERS, Fla.- The most tenured Buccaneer in the Florida SouthWestern Baseball program is taking his talents up the coast next year as FSW backstop Nik Pereira has signed at 2025 NCAA Division II National Champion, University of Tampa, for the 2025-2026 season. 

 

Pereira spent three seasons with the Bucs, redshirting his first season in Fort Myers before seeing action in 25 games as a freshman in 2024, and breaking out for a 1^st Team All-Conference campaign during his sophomore season in 2025. Pereira was a key cog in the Bucs run to the Juco World Series this season, playing in 55 games and hitting .339 with 12 doubles and 11 home runs while driving in 45 runs. He started all nine of the Bucs postseason games behind the plate and each of FSW's final 16 games of the year overall, leading the Purple and Aqua to their first Citrus Conference and FCSAA Championships and a trip over the mountain in Colorado to Grand Junction. Pereira was a 1^st Team All-Conference and 1st Team All-FCSAA pick for the Bucs and also earned All-Tournament Team honors at the FCSAA Championships after accounting for nine runs with four driven in and five scored in four Buccaneer ballgames. 

 

Pereira will join one of the most successful programs in the country at the University of Tampa. The Spartans were 55-10 this season, fighting off five elimination games at the NCAA Division II World Series to win their second straight National Championship and 10^th in program history. Pereira will rejoin forces with FSW teammate Josiah Velazquez with the Spartans after the lefthander also committed to Tampa during the Spring of 2025. 

 

Pereira is one of five Bucs who have signed at the next level thus far, joining Abel Albarran (Middle Tennesse St.), Brock Knoerr (Western Kentucky), Luke Orfi (Texas Tech), and Josiah Velazquez (Tampa).