BELLFLOWER — The road to the Big League World Series always goes through the Anaheim All-Stars for the defending champion Thousand Oaks Little League 18-and-under team.

For the fourth time in the last five years, Thousand Oaks defeated Anaheim 4-2 Sunday in the Southern California Tournament to earn a berth in Thursday's Western Regional tournament in Ollala, Wash.

Designated hitter Michael Schwartz is one of eight players basking in his first year of Big League glory.

"It felt good," said Schwartz, a Ventura College player.

"For the first time being a Big League player, there's no words to describe it," said Schwartz.

Winning pitcher Zach Thornton, from Ventura College, said he was a little shaky to start the championship game, but had tossed a one-hitter in Tuesday's 5-1 win over Anaheim for Thousand Oaks' second win in the tournament.

"I had better speed and it just clicked," said Thornton, after shutting down Anaheim in the last four innings.

Thousand Oaks was trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth when it rallied for three runs.

Kyle Jones legged out an infield hit. Brett Fick had a one-out single. Stephen Notaro walked. Jones scored on a wild pitch and Fick scored on a dropped third strike. Ty Muller added an RBI hit for the fourth run.

Schwartz had an RBI in the first inning. Kyle Jones had a single and Fick had a double. Jones scored on a fielder's choice.

Anaheim's Victor Lopez homered to start the second inning. In the third inning, Kevin Errington had a hit and Eric Ornelas had an RBI hit to make it 2-1. After the second run scored, Thousand Oaks right fielder Ty Muller threw out a runner at third base for the inning's first out. Thornton recorded a strikeout and induced a ground out to pitch out of the jam.

Thornton scattered seven hits and struck out three in the top of the seventh as Anaheim ended the game with a runner at second base from a throwing error. Thornton recorded nine strikeouts.

Thornton said Thousand Oaks always finds a way to pull off a victory.

"Whatever we have to do to win, we seem to do," said Thornton.

Thousand Oaks' Jason Barmasse, Fick, Jones, Notaro, Tyler Peddicord, Garret and Ben Yarin are returning World Series players. Fick and Notaro were on the 2005 World Series team, which lost to tournament host South Carolina, a three-time champion. Last summer, Thousand Oaks defeated Puerto Rico 10-0 for the championship.

The other new all-stars are Matt Bywater, Jake Fiss, Collin Lavoie and Anthony Montenegro.

Anaheim is 4-7 against Thousand Oaks over the last five years.

Thousand Oaks won regional championships in 2003 in Billings, Mont., 2005 in Sacramento and 2006 in Ollala, Wash. Manager Ed Kitchen and assistant coach Mike Sheehan were on the 1998 Conejo Valley Little League Big League World Series championship team.

Matt Ricatto is the other 2007 Thousand Oaks assistant coach.

Montalvo wins: The Montalvo 11-12-year-old Little League All-Stars won their ninth straight game, defeating Paso Robles 8-2 at Nipomo on Sunday. The District 63 champions were 7-0 and defeated District 13 and two-time Section 1 champion Moorpark 7-1 on Saturday.

Montalvo will play in Tuesday's 5:30 p.m. championship game. Orcutt plays Paso Robles in today's elimination game.

Montalvo's Dalton Rocha was the winning pitcher on Sunday. Nathaniel Palace pitched the fourth and fifth innings. Wesley Dodge was the closer.

Dodge had three hits, including two doubles and a walk. Phil Bickford had a two-run homer. Palace hit a homer.

The Section 1 champion advances to this weekend's Southern California Tournament at La Mirada.