Matěj Menšík: We have to go all-in on everything

Matěj Menšík was rather productive in the first two games of European Championship and so it should come as no surprise we decided to pick him for an interview after the game against Greece, which Czechs won 14-0.

Matěj, it was a statement win against Greece. How would you sum it up?

I think we progressed a bit again. Our performance was better than against Austria. We were finally able to wrap up the game before the ninth inning. And it’s only up to use for it to continue. I’m happy with today.

You have a good tournament so far. Yesterday you had a homerun and today it was two hits. What do you think about your form so far?

So far so good. But we are getting to the important parts of the tournament where we face stronger pitchers. The speed will be something else. Might need to change the approach and make it simpler. Do little things and I hope, it will continue working.

Pitchers didn’t allow any runs for two games. They also had good preparation for the championship. What do you think about their performance?

It’s absolutely great when defense has something to lean on. Middle infield is brilliant as we play one double play after another, on those occasions where pitchers let one through to the field. It is really important, when the pitching works well, the game is just different.

Sweden beat Italy and threw the other group in disarray. It might be a prompt to some tactics as to who you get to play in the quarterfinals.

I don’t think we can. We have to go all-in on everything and we cannot let on. It is a really short tournament. We will play six games at best and it will be the second most important after quarterfinals. We need to show what we are made of and ideally go to the quarterfinals from the first place.

Ostrava was sold out yesterday. Today it was almost sold out. What do you think of the fans in Arrows Park?

It is fantastic. After what we saw in Tokyo, which was a huge event with a large support and number of fans, we really enjoy playing in front of so many people. It’s neat how many came. It is very important for us. It might not seem so, but the sport is half of what it should be without fans.

Can you compare it to Torino two years ago, where there were very few fans?

It is something completely different. I think we all saw it, because association took it to heart and we just knew the tournament will be improvement against the previous editions. And it only shows. I hope it will only continue to grow.