The road to the Big League World Series started Sunday at Ruth Caruthers Park in Bellflower.

The Thousand Oaks 16-18-year-old Little League all-stars, who won the Big League championship last year, opened the Southern California State Championship Tournament by defeating Section 8 champion Bloomington 9-1.

Thousand Oaks (1-0) earns a second-round game Tuesday against Anaheim Katella (1-0), a nemesis over the years in the SoCal Big League Tournament. Game time will be 5 p.m. Tuesday's winner advances to the championship-bracket game on Friday at 7:30 p.m. The championship game will be played on Sunday at 3 p.m. If a deciding game is needed, it will be July 16 at 6 p.m.

The Western Regional Tournament will be July 19-24 at Ollala, Wash.

The World Series will be July 8-Aug. 4 in Easley, S.C.

Last summer, manager Ed Kitchen's Thousand Oaks team defeated Puerto Rico 10-0 to win the championship.

In Sunday's win for Thousand Oaks, Matt Bywater, Tyler Peddicord and Andres Ceja shared the pitching duties.

Bywater, a star for the Thousand Oaks High team in the spring, pitched four innings, allowing two hits and registering four strikeouts. Peddicord pitched a scoreless inning and Ceja threw the final two innings, allowing a run, but striking out two.

Stephen Notaro had two hits and drove in a run. Jason Barmasse had an RBI double. Ben Yarin had an RBI single. Thousand Oaks capitalized on seven Bloomington errors.

Other Thousand Oaks players include Brett Fick, Jake Fiss, Kyle Jones, Collin Lavoie, Anthony Montenegro, Ty Muller, Garrett Rau, Michael Schwartz and Zach Thornton.

In 2005 and 2003, Thousand Oaks was a World Series finalist. Tournament host South Carolina won titles from 2003 to 2005.

Matt Ricatto and Mike Sheehan are the team's assistant coaches.

District 13 honors Street: A memorial fund has been started for Conejo Valley Little League Junior Division all-star James David Street.

Donations may sent to the James David Street Memorial Fund, care of California Oaks State Bank, P.O. Box 5038, Thousand Oaks, CA, 91359-9873.

Street, 13, known as the "Blonde Bomber," died tragically on July 4 from a skateboarding accident in Thousand Oaks. Last summer, he hit three home runs in a District 13 all-star game against Moorpark.

Street was an honor student.

District 13 will have a moment of silence before the remaining tournament games. The Juniors, a 13-14-year old Conejo Valley East team, will play for the championship on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at Moorpark Little League. The Conejo Valley team rallied in a July 5 game to edge Port Hueneme, 8-7.