Staff photo / Preston Byers Howland pitcher Steven Bubon reacts after closing out Tuesday’s win vs. Warren G. Harding at Howland Township Park.

HOWLAND — A day after its road All-American Conference (AAC) game against Howland was rescheduled due to suddenly frigid weather, Warren G. Harding’s mistakes snowballed in a lopsided loss.

On Tuesday at Howland Township Park, the Raiders committed error after error, and the Tigers proved more than happy to take advantage of the mistakes, especially during a 10-run third inning that all but ended the game. And Howland officially run-ruled Harding in the fifth, winning 14-0.

“I love our kids’ attitudes and the way we’re executing defensively. … The bats, all things considered, they did pretty well. Just very excited to keep the ball rolling,” Howland head coach Britt Taylor said.

Although most of the day went smoothly for him, Howland starter Steven Bubon walked Kwame Adams and surrendered a hit to Elias Johnson early in the first inning before recording the first of nine strikeouts on the day and then forcing a groundout to strand the pair of runners.

After the Tigers similarly left a runner on in the home half of the first, Bubon struck out the side, setting up his team to take the lead in the bottom of the second.

Bode Biggin led off the half-inning by being hit by a pitch, and shortly thereafter, he stole second base and subsequently advanced to third on a balk by Harding starter Isyah Johnson. Terri Werner then drove Biggin in with a sacrifice fly to center field, giving the Tigers a 1-0 advantage.

Unlike the previous inning, Bubon faced some adversity in the top of the third. After striking out his fourth consecutive batter to start the half-inning, he hit Jaron Edmonds with a pitch and then allowed Adams to single through the left side of the infield.

However, he again got out of a potential jam, as the Tigers forced out Edmonds running to third on a ground ball before Bubon struck out Doug Pleacher to leave two runners on base.

Things took a very sour turn from there for the Raiders.

Leading off the bottom of the third, Vincent Weeks reached first base on an infield error, one of many by Harding in the fateful inning. Johnson then walked Deacon Mock and Richie Ansel to load the bases, which allowed Keaton Perry to score two with a double to right field. Ansel then scored on a ground ball to third base that never left the infielder’s glove. Perry raced home soon on an errant throw down to third base, giving Howland a 5-0 lead.

After Biggin drew a walk, Werner reached base on an off-the-mark throw to first, which led to two runs and allowed Werner to make it all the way to third base. Da’Rone Pennock then relieved Johnson on the mound.

Despite the pitching change, the Tigers continued to pour it on. Although Werner was called out on a play at home, Sully O’Donnell and Weeks reached on errors, Mock and Perry singled and four more runs scored to make it 11-0 Howland.

“I honestly don’t know,” Harding head coach Andrew Burnett said of the errors. “Baseball’s a weird game, you know. Those were about as easy of ground balls as you can get. Sometimes, it happens that way.”

The Tigers scored three runs and loaded the bases more than once, but a bases-loaded groundout ended the inning.

Regardless, Bubon ended it after 4 1/2 innings by retiring the side in order, ending with a final strikeout.

“It was ugly,” Burnett said. “You can’t be bad at all phases of the game, and that’s what we did today. We had seven errors, we got to make changes at the plate. Just an ugly game, it happens. It’s baseball. You roll over tomorrow. That’s the beautiful thing about it; we get to start over.”

Bubon allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out nine. The Raiders’ pitchers, plagued by more than half of a dozen errors, combined for three strikeouts and surrendered seven hits and six walks.

Tuesday’s defeat marked the eighth consecutive loss for Harding (4-8, 0-1 AAC), which began the season with four wins in a row. During their losing streak, the Raiders have been outscored 92-27, including 44-2 in their last four.

Harding will host Howland (5-3, 2-1 AAC) in the second leg of their league back-to-back today.

“You never know. It’s kind of like the Backyard Brawl,” Taylor said of the rematch. “Great group of kids, great coaches over there and they always come out to battle. So you never know.”