Newly crowned ACO world champion King of Cornhole Isidro Herrera thanks the crowd for their support.
Isidro Herrera wasn’t going to play in the King of Cornhole VII.
Excuse me. Say that again.
The Chicago native who lost to Eric Zocklein at King of Cornhole VI wasn’t planning on returning to Tunica, Mississippi for another shot at the ACO world championship title. That all changed three weeks before the event.
The reigning ACO world champion Queen of Cornhole Crystal Mann sent Herrera a text. She needed a partner for the World Doubles Championship.
“So I said, ‘Well, I’m in,’” Herrera said. Besides, who can say no to an invitation from the Queen?
Herrera and Mann lost to Derrick King and Jimmy McGuffin in round one in the final 32-team bracket, which eliminated their chances at the World Doubles Championship titles. They won their next two matches in the losers bracket before getting knocked out by the husband and wife duo Bruce and Teresa Foresee.
But it’s the King of Cornhole where Herrera wanted to be. He and Eric Zocklein put on a performance last year that went down as one for the record books.
“We were tied 20-20 in the second game, and he gave me two chances to score 1 point. I didn’t take advantage of it,” Herrera recalls, thinking back to last year’s title bout. “Then, just one bad throw that I had, he scored his points on me, and that was the game.”
Zocklein entered the King of Cornhole VII seeded 4th, having earned a free entry into the tournament due to getting into the CornyForty (top 40 in the world rankings). Herrera had a much bigger hill to climb.
Herrera had to battle through almost 100 players to win one of eight Open spots in the King of Cornhole VII. His quarterfinals lost to Matt Guy at the ACO Hamilton Cornhole Cup in June earned him 16 points in the World Rankings. He was nowhere near getting into the CornyForty. Even a great SCR wouldn’t put him anywhere close to qualifying for the Ranked Players Invitational, an exclusive tournament for top points earners vying for 16 spots in the King of Cornhole.
Not only did Herrera return to the main event, it would be against his friend and reigning world champion King of Cornhole Eric Zocklein. Herrera won game one 21-16, lost game two 21-14 and found himself down 20-12 in the third and final game of the match.“Honestly, I thought I was done,” Herrera said.Herrera was far from done. He inched his way back into match, eventually tying the final game 20-20. Zocklein had a bad frame. Herrera capitalized on it and edged Zocklein 21-20 to earn the crown and rightfully be known as the King of Cornhole.
“You play around here and go to little tournaments and you think everyone’s good. There’s a lot of good cornholers around here,” Herrera said. “But you get to the big tournaments, and they’re just incredible. Every little chance they get, they want to score on you every time. They’re aggressive.”