RISE UP-Thousand Oaks All-Star Garrett Rau slides safely into third base while Foothill's Clay Williamson goes high to get the ball. The ultimate goal this summer for the Thousand Oaks Big League All-Stars is to make a return trip to the World Series in South Carolina, where they finished as runners-up a year ago.

Last Saturday at Conejo Creek Park South, the team, composed mostly of Marmonte League standouts who are 18 and younger took another step toward achieving its objective by defeating Foothill 11-7 in the Section 1 championship.

With the victory, Thousand Oaks advanced to the California Division 3 tournament in Long Beach, where they began play Wednesday.

"Everyone really produced today," center fielder Cody Fierro said following the win. "We scored a lot of runs after getting only five hits combined in the first three games. That was nice to see."

Fierro, who set Newbury Park High's career home run record this season, was 2-for-2 at the plate with a single, double, walk, sacrifice fly, three runs scored, a pair of stolen bases and three RBI.

While he wasn't on the team for its run in 2005, Fierro said the camaraderie on this year's squad has been great since the group was formed more than a month ago.

"The team is really tight; everyone enjoys being around one another," Fierro said. "I think we can go pretty far."

Recently graduated Westlake High catcher Stephen Notaro, one of four returning players from last year's squad, hit a three-run home run on the first pitch he saw Saturday to stake T.O. to a 3-0 lead.

Following his first-inning blast, Notaro struck out three times, making it a day he'd like to both remember and forget.

"To tell you the truth, I kind of lost it after that first at-bat," Notaro said. "I was way too anxious after my first time up. I was trying to be too aggressive, and that's not a good thing."

Royal High's Kellen Fink allowed two earned runs in four innings of work to get the win for Thousand Oaks.

"I wasn't really on today and the (umpire) was pinching me a little bit," Fink said. "But for the most part, I did all right. I got ground balls for outs."

In addition to Notaro and Fink, Cole Kahle and Brett Fick were also part of last season's team. Managing the squad once again

is Ed Kitchen, a longtime coach in the Conejo Valley whose resume in youth baseball is second to none.

Kitchen won a Junior World Series title in 1994. In 1996, his T.O. Senior team captured a United States National Championship. He was also the manager in 2003 and again last year when Thousand Oaks finished second at the Big League World Series.

Furthermore, Kitchen was a coach on the 2004 Conejo Valley Little League squad that won the United States title before falling in the world championship game to Curacao.

"I was a coach on a CIF championship team and I got a ring," Kitchen said. "I tell the guys that I'd turn my ring in right now just to have a chance to play in the World Series, let alone win one.

"It's the best experience these kids will ever have," he said. "We're still friends with players from previous international tournaments, people from all over the world. It's a great experience and I'd like to do it again."

To get back to South Carolina, Thousand Oaks will have to win the Division 3 tournament and then topple the competition in the Western Regionals.