First, Omaha pitchers couldn’t find the strike zone. Then they couldn’t find the catcher.

Four walks, three runs on wild pitches and a runner reaching on a strikeout snowballed into an eight-run eighth inning Monday and turned a one-run Sky Sox deficit into an 11-6 runaway victory.

“We’ve seen some crazy stuff lately,” said Eric Young Jr., who drew a bases-loaded walk in the eighth. “Especially at home, you never know what’s going to happen so we’ve just learned to keep playing every out.”

Outs were hard to come by for both teams late in the game.

Omaha took the lead after consecutive errors by third baseman Mike McCoy and shortstop Jonathan Herrera helped the Royals plate an unearned run in the eighth.

“That game turned ugly,” Sky Sox manager Tom Runnells said. “It turned into an ugly affair.”

Baseball America rates Carlos Rosa’s fastball as the best in the Royals’ system, but on this night it only meant catcher J.R. House had less time to respond when those fastballs bounced in front of him.

After a 1-2-3 seventh, Rosa failed to retire any of the six batters he faced in the eighth as the Sky Sox scored eight runs before the first out was recorded.

Even the plays that didn’t go right for the Sky Sox led to runs.

Kenny Perez twice failed to lay down a bunt, but ended up walking and scoring. Sal Fasano struck out, but did so on one of the run-scoring wild pitches, so he reached first and later scored.

“It happens,” said Omaha first baseman Kila Kaaihue, who is 8-for-12 with four doubles and a homer in the series. “They did a good job laying off a lot of pitches and getting key hits when they needed them.”

The biggest hit in the inning came from McCoy, whose third hit of the game drove in two and allowed Young to score when a throw to third went into the dugout.

With nine hits in his past three games, the supersub’s batting average is tantalizingly close to .400 at .396.

“(Chris) Frey was wondering about that,” McCoy said of his inching toward a magic number. “I’m not really thinking about it, I just want to keep getting good at-bats.”

The wild finish obscured a solid start from Colorado Springs’ Jason Hirsch, who gave up three runs in 61/3 innings. Hirsch retired 12 of 13 at one point.

Reliever Damian Moss (3-0) won despite committing an error, throwing a wild pitch and walking a batter in 12/3 inning.

“What else can you say?” Runnells said. “We’ll take it.”

MAJOR LEAGUE MOMENT

On a night when three shattered bats helicoptered beyond the infield grass, Omaha pitcher Carlos Rosa fielded a Mike McCoy bouncer as a chunk of McCoy’s maple bat twirled beside him. From there, Rosa easily converted the throw to first.

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